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AMERICAN STATESMEN 

EDITED BY 

JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 

IN THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES 

VOL. XXXI. 



THE CIVIL WAR 
THADDEUS STEVENS 



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THADDEUS STEVENS 



SAMUEL W. McCALL 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

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APR 26 1899 



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COPYRIGHT, 1899. BY SAMTJEL W. McCALL 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 






PREFACE 

Thaddeus Stevens was the unquestioned 
leader of the House of Representatives from 
July 4, 1861, when it assembled at the call of 
Lincoln, until his death, which occurred in 1868. 
The legislative work of that period stands unap- 
proached in difficulty and importance in the 
history of Congress, if not, indeed, of any par- 
liamentary body in the world. Stevens was the 
chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means 
during the war, and afterwards of the Com- 
mittees on Appropriations and Reconstruction. 
He was, therefore, especially identified with the 
financial measures of the war, including the 
legal tender acts, also with reconstruction, with 
the great constitutional amendments, and with 
the impeachment of President Johnson. I have 
dwelt very slightly upon his connection, during 
the later period of his congressional service, 
with other matters, which, although some of 
them would have been of great consequence in 
ordinary times, were dwarfed and robbed of 
interest by the stupendous events with wlnph 
they were associated. 



vi PREFACE 

The fact that no extended biography of Ste- 
vens has ever been published would have very 
greatly augmented the difficulty of my work 
had it not been for the assistance which has 
been generously given me. I desire especially 
to acknowledge my obligation to Hon. Marriott 
Brosius, who has for many years represented 
Stevens's former district in Congress ; to Pro- 
fessor C. F. Richardson, of Dartmouth College ; 
to Mr. C. B. Tillinghast, of the Massachusetts 
State Library ; to Mr. A. R. Spofford and Mr. 
J. Q. Howard, of the Library of Congress ; and 
to those two venerable and distinguished states- 
men, the Hon. Henry L. Dawes and Hon. 
George S. Boutwell, who served with Stevens in 
Congress during the war period, and were inti- 
mately associated with him in most of the im- 
portant legislation of that era. 

S. W. McCall. 

Washington, D. C, January 19, 1899. 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. *AOE 

I. Youth 1 

n. The Law 19 

III. Entrance into Public Life— Fkee Schools 28 

IV. Constitutional Convention — The " Buck- 

shot War" — Elected to Congress . 46 

V. Congress — Anti-Slavery Speeches . 66 ' 
VI. Resumes Law Practice — Again returned 

TO Congress — Caimpaign of 1860 . . 89 
VII. Secession — Character of Slavery Agita- 
tion 115 

VIII. Leader of the House 136 

IX. The Legal Tender 152 

X. War Revenue Measures .... 174 

XI. War Legislation 182 

XII. Emancipation 210 

XIII. The Beginning of Reconstruction • 229 

XIV. The Johnson Plan 244 

XV. The Rupture with the President . 256 

XVI. Reconstruction Legislation and its Re- 
sults 285 

XVII. Wit and Other Characteristics . . 309 

XVIII. The Impeachment 323 

XIX. Last Days 349 

Index 355 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Thaddeus Stevens Frontispiece 

From a photograph lent by John B. McPherson, 
Esq., Gettysburg, Pa. 

Autograph from a MS. in the possession of Mr. Mc- 
Pherson. 

The vignette of Mr. Stevens's home, Lancaster, Pa., 
is from photographs and drawings kindly furnished 
by the Hon. Marriott Brosius, Lancaster, Pa. Page 

Facsimile of Thaddeus Stevens's Handwriting 

facing 238 

Letter written July 10, 1864, to the Hon. Edward 
McPherson. From the original MS. in the possession 
of John B. McPherson, Esq., Gettysburg, Pa. 
Benjamin F. Wade /«""3 246 

From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the 
State Department at Washington. 

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Bos- 
ton Public Library. 
Andbew Johnson facing m 

From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the 
State Department at Washington. 

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Bos- 
ton Public Library. 

Revbrdy Johnson /«"""^ ^^^ 

From a photograph by Daniel Bendann, Baltimore, 

Md. 

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Bos- 
ton Public Library. 



THADDEUS STEVENS 



CHAPTER I 

YOUTH 

Thaddeus Stevens, the son of Joshua and 
Sally Stevens, was born in Danville, Vermont, 
April 4, 1792. Not much is known of his 
ancestors, although enough to enable us to de- 
termine the character of the stock, which was 
evidently Anglo-Saxon. His parents removed 
from Methuen, in Essex County, Massachu- 
setts, to Danville, about the year 1786, with a 
small company of immigrants, mostly bearing 
the names of Harris and Morrill, the latter be- 
ing the maiden name of his mother. The name 
of Joshua Stevens, or Stephens, as it was on 
that occasion, and often, written, makes a soli- 
tary appearance in the records of Haverhill, in 
1712, before Methuen had been set off from 
that town. It is found with the names of eight 
others, all of whom lived in that part of the 
town which afterwards became Methuen, upon 



2 THADDEUS STEVENS 

a petition asking an abatement of tlieir taxes for 
the support of the ministry and the school "on 
account of the great distance they lived from 
the town and the difficulty they met with in 
coming." ^ If the signer of this petition was an 
ancestor of our hero, this lonely circumstance, 
coming from the distant past, stands somewhat 
in contrast with the great speech with which 
more than a century afterwards Thaddeus Ste- 
vens saved from repeal the free -school system of 
Pennsylvania. 

The father of Thaddeus does not appear to 
have had the thrifty and enterprising qualities 
necessary to achieve success in the wilderness, 
although he was well versed in the science of 
surveying, so useful to the pioneer, and which 
in the settlement of this country has often 
brought to its possessor not merely good wages, 
but also large tracts of land gained by "survey- 
ing on the shares." He re-surveyed the lines of 
the town of Danville in 1790, and his measure- 
ments are the legal ones to-day. He was a shoe- 
maker also, and his son Thaddeus learned enough 
of the trade to enable him to make shoes for 
the family. He enjoyed a wide reputation as 
an athlete, especially at wrestling, and was able, 
like young Abraham Lincohi, to throw any man 
in his neighborhood. The accounts are uniform 
^ Chase, History of Haverhill, p. 237- 



YOUTH 3 

in attributing to him great poverty, although 
they disagree as to the method of his final escape 
from it. One version has it that he ran away 
from his family a few years after settling in 
Danville, and was never heard of again ; another 
that he was killed in the war of 1812; while yet 
another has it that he died at home while his 
children were young. This much appears cer- 
tain, that the mother was left in extreme penury 
with four children, aU boys, to support and edu- 
cate. 

The location of DanviUe on the western edge 
of the valley which there takes its name from 
the Passumpsic, but a few miles further south 
merges into the Connecticut, is beautiful in the 
extreme. The land rises rapidly towards the 
west from St. Johnsbury, ten miles distant, and 
in general level it attains an altitude in Danville 
of about two thousand feet above the sea. The 
principal peaks of the White and Franconia 
mountains in New Hampshire are distinctly 
visible, and in the other direction the Green 
Mountains make a jagged horizon, with their 
summits uplifted against the sky. Pleasing as 
are the outlines of the mountains and the beauty 
of the valleys and lesser hills, they form by no 
means the most attractive features of the scen- 
ery. No verdure has a brighter green in the 
springtime, or a more brilliant variety of color- 



4 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ing in the autumn tlian the maple forests in that 
portion of Vermont. One would not know 
where to find a more gorgeous picture than can 
be seen from one of the hills in that region upon 
a clear September or October day. The maple- 
trees afforded a more solid benefit than to color 
the landscape ; and when the supply of food was 
almost exhausted at the close of a long winter, 
they furnished that well-known, wholesome sugar 
which helped to preserve the first immigrants 
from starvation.^ Not the least of the hardships 
which those j)ioneers had to endure was the rigor 
of the climate. At a point north of the 45th 
parallel, and remote from the sea, the cold was 
of course severe. The snow lay deep upon the 
hillsides until late in the springtime and re- 
turned before the end of the autumn, but the 
fertile soil yielded bountiful crops even in the 
brief summer. In spite of these severities, 
however, the settlement was soon firmly planted, 
and, on the whole, with much less than the usual 
suffering. 

The start of Thaddeus Stevens in life was 
lowly enough, but not on that account unpro- 
mising. It is true, as has been said, that his 
family was even desperately poor; but the rude 
state of the society about him presented slight 
inequalities of condition, and interposed few 

^ Ver?nont Historical Gazetteer, toI. i. p. 313. 



YOUTH 5 

obstacles between him and nature, with whom he 
was invited to a struggle to win what she had to 
yield. The wild freedom of the life about him, 
the rigor of the climate, the great natural beauty 
of the surroundings, and the strong and law- 
abiding qualities of the community in which he 
lived, formed a series of happy circumstances. 
The social and political influences to which he 
was subjected were intensely democratic. The 
stirring events of the Revolution were fresh in 
the minds of men, and the heroes of that strug- 
gle, still in their prime, could be found in every 
considerable town. The system of government 
established by the Constitution had just gone 
into operation, and, while it imposed checks upon 
hasty popular action, it was admirably designed 
to secure, in the conditions then existing, the 
enactment into law of the sober second thought 
of the people, and was thus, in the best sense, a 
democratic government. 

There were also special facts in the history 
of Vermont which powerfully tended to develop 
in a bright and studious boy the qualities of in- 
dividuality and of a sturdy independence. The 
territory of that State had been claimed at the 
same time by Great Britain, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, and New York, and also by the 
government of the confederation. While her 
soldiers contributed greatly by their valor to win 



6 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the victory of the colonies over the common 
enemy, the State, in the sounding language of 
Ethan Allen, acknowledged no allegiance but to 
the King of kings. ^ For years she successfully 
asserted her independence of all other powers, 
maintained her own army, coined her own 
money, and exercised such other attributes of 
sovereignty as she chose to assume. At length 
she accomplished her desire, and was admitted 
into the Union as an independent State upon 
equal terms with New York, New Hampshire, 
and Massachusetts, each of whom had previously 
alleged ownership of her. 

Among such a people and at such a time an 
aristocracy of wealth and of birth stood little 
chance of being developed. The work to be 
done required men, and the exacting difficulties 
in the way of society uncovered merit and used 
it wherever it might be found. The possession 
of property, of which indeed very little existed, 
gave no unfair advantage, and the lack of it 
caused no inconvenience, save the necessity for 
more strenuous exertion. If a settler did not 
have a horse it was necessary for him to walk 
and to carry his wood or other load upon his 

1 That the early settlers of Vermont did not consider them- 
selves unequal to any task may be inferred from the resolu- 
tion, passed by the Council of Public Safety during the revo- 
lutionary period, that the laws of God and Connecticut be 
adopted '' until we have time to frame better." 



YOUTH 7 

back; and while the man with property might 
supply his wants with less labor, — for anything 
like real luxury was unknown, — he gained no 
social prestige over his poorer neighbor. The 
conditions with which Stevens was surrounded 
were thus admirably adapted to implant and 
powerfully strengthen the hatred of privilege 
and the idea of democratic equality, which so 
strongly characterized him in after years. 

Stevens was most fortunate in his mother. 
All accounts agree that she was remarkable for 
character and strength of mind. She made a 
heroic struggle to overcome the disadvantages of 
poverty and to give her children a good educa- 
tion. Thaddeus was sickly in his youth, and his 
mother determined to send him to college. Her 
other boys, however, were by no means neg- 
lected, and each one of them afterwards achieved 
distinction in his chosen pursuit. The history 
of Stevens's boyhood is marked by few incidents 
except those which naturally grow out of a wild 
and stirring frontier life. When he was twelve 
years old his parents took him on a visit to Bos- 
ton, which was then a small town, but by far the 
largest that Stevens had ever seen. The sight 
of it kindled his ambition, and he determined to 
become rich. Another incident of his early life 
is preserved, which shows the character of his 
mother. The year after his visit to Boston a 



8 THADDEUS STEVENS 

plague, known among the settlers as the "spotted 
fever," broke out and raged violently throughout 
Danville and the adjoining towns. So many- 
were stricken with the disease that it was im- 
possible to procure proper attendance. Mrs. 
Stevens was untiring in her care of the sick, 
going from house to house, ministering to their 
wants and alleviating their sufferings in every 
way in her power. She frequently took Thad- 
deus with her upon these visits, and an impres- 
sion was made upon him which he never forgot. 
From whatever cause, his sympathy for suffering 
was throughout his life one of the strongest 
traits of his character. 

He could never sufficiently acknowledge his 
indebtedness to his mother. Long years after, 
he said of her: "I really think the greatest 
pleasure of my life resulted from my ability to 
give my mother a farm of two hundred and fifty 
acres, and a dairy of fourteen cows, and an oc- 
casional bright gold piece, which she loved to 
deposit in the contributor's box of the Baptist 
Church which she attended. This always gave 
her much j3leasure and me much satisfaction. 
My mother was a very extraordinary woman. 
I have met very few women like her. My father 
was not a well-to-do man, and the support and 
education of the family depended upon my mo- 
ther. She worked day and night to educate me. 



YOUTH 9 

I was feeble and lame in youth, and as I could 
not work on the farm, she concluded to give me 
an education. I tried to repay her afterwards, 
but the debt of a child to his mother, you know, 
is one of the debts we can never pay." He 
gratefully cherished her memory to the last, and 
by his will he established a fund, the income of 
which was forever to be used to plant each 
springtime "roses and other cheerful flowers" 
upon her grave. 

The means of education at the disposal of 
young Stevens were not of so limited a character 
as might be supposed. That portion of Ver- 
mont had only just been settled at the time of 
his birth, and yet the tide of immigration set 
in so strongly that when he was a dozen years 
old his native town was nearly as populous as it 
is to-day. The first sounds of the axe had 
hardly broken the silence of the wilderness 
when, true to the instinct of the race from which 
they sprang, the settlers established a court for 
the peaceable settlement of their disjjutes, and a 
school for the education of their children. It 
was agreed that Danville should be the shire 
town and have the court-house, and that the 
academy should be established in the adjoining 
town of Peacham. A charter was obtained in 
1795, and the academy now in existence in the 
latter town began its long and honorable career. 



10 THADDEUS STEVENS 

The academy possessed greater attraction for 
Mrs. Stevens than the court-house, and accord- 
ingly she moved to Peacham, that she might 
educate her boys. The school was a very hum- 
ble institution both architecturally and in its 
means of instruction. It had no large endow- 
ment, no long list of learned teachers, and no 
imposing buildings to strike the imagination; 
but its rude halls were thronged with pupils 
eager to acquire knowledge, and they made the 
most of all the means at their command. In 
fact, with the ardor of bright scholars, they 
seemed willing to improve upon the ordinary 
facilities of the school, and to introduce more 
modern methods than the board of trustees were 
willing to sanction. The rules provided that 
there should be each year "an exhibition, in 
which the male scholars shall be the only per- 
formers, and that the pieces to be spoken shall 
be selected by the preceptor and submitted to 
the inspection of the prudential committee." 
This rule apparently did not secure a sufficiently 
sombre programme, and its defects were repaired 
by two amendments, one of which provided 
"that there be no performances by candle-light," 
and the other that the exhibition " be regulated 
so as to exckide tragedies, comedies, and other 
theatrical performances."^ 

1 The Peaeliam Academy Centennial Address, by Hon. C. A. 
Bunker, 1897. 



YOUTH 11 

At this point Tliaddeus Stevens for the first 
time emerges into the full light of history, and 
in view of his subsequent anathemas against 
treason, it is remarkable that his first appear- 
ance should have been in the role of a rebel. 
However exemplary the course of Stevens at 
the academy may have been in other respects, 
his good deeds have eluded the vigilance of the 
historian of the school, and his open violation of 
both the rules I have cited is the one conspicu- 
ous circumstance that survives. He appears to 
have been stage-struck, and also to have pre- 
ferred the glare of the candle to the daylight. 
Accordingly, on October 7, 1811, we find the 
trustees passing a vote, naming thirteen stu- 
dents, of whom Stevens was one, and resolving 
that their course, "in refusing on the day of 
publick exhibition, being the 4th day of Septem- 
ber last, to proceed in" their exhibition in the 
day time while the board were waiting to see 
their performance was conduct highly reprehen- 
sible. And that their proceeding to exhibit a 
tragedy in the evening of the said day, contrary 
to the known rules and orders of the school and 
the express prohibition of the preceptor, was a 
gross violation of the rules and by-laws of the 
institution, tending to subvert all order and sub- 
ordination in said school, and to disturb the 
peace of the society, and that they be required 



12 THADDEUS STEVENS 

to subscribe the following submission, viz. : 
We, the subscribers, students in the Academy at 
Peacham, having been concerned in the exhibi- 
tion of a tragedy on the evening of September 
4, 1811, contrary to the known rules of the 
board of trustees, on reflection are convinced 
that we have done wrong in not paying a suit- 
able respect to the authority of the board, and 
hereby promise that, as long as we continue stu- 
dents at this Academy, we will observe such 
rules as the board may prescribe." Mr. Bun- 
ker says that Stevens signed the paper with great 
reluctance and because he could do nothing else, 
and that he then completed his preparation for 
college, but "never forgot his chagrin." He 
may have signed the paper, but probably not for 
the purpose of going back to the academy, for 
his preparation was already finished, and he en- 
tered Dartmouth College during the fall of 1811 
as a sophomore. 

There is a lack of very definite information 
as to his career in college. The commonly ac- 
cepted version that he first entered the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, and while a student there wit- 
nessed the battle of Lake Champlain, and that 
afterwards he went to Dartmouth, is incorrect. 
The battle occurred September 11, 1814, and he 
graduated from Dartmouth in the summer of 
that year. The records of the two colleges make 



YOUTH 13 

it clear that he took his entire college course at 
Dartmouth, excepting the latter part of the col- 
lege year, 1812-1813.1 

When Stevens entered Dartmouth more than 
forty years had elapsed since Eleazar Wheelock 
had planted it in the wilderness at Hanover. 
It remained for many years the only college in 
northern New England, and the rapid settlement 
of that region gave it great prosperity.^ During 
Stevens's connection with the college its stu- 
dents usually numbered about one hundred and 
forty, and it had a faculty of eight instructors 
besides the president. Professor Moore, after- 
wards the president of Amherst and Williams 
colleges, and Professors Shurtleff and Adams 
were perhaps the most learned of the teachers. 
The president was Dr. John Wheelock, the son 
of the founder of the college. The quality of 
his influence may be determined in a measure 
from the portrait of him which survives in the 
journal of George Ticknor, who graduated from 

1 I am indebted to Professor C. F. Richardson, of Dart- 
mouth, and to Professor J. E. Goodrich, of the University of 
Vermont, for the most important facts in connection with his 
college course. 

2 In 1791 it graduated to the degree of A. B. 49, while the 
number for the same year was 27 for each of the other leading 
colleges, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton ; and for the decade 
1790-1800 the number of graduates was : Harvard, 394 ; Dart- 
mouth, 363 ; Yale, 295 ; Princeton, 240. Chase, History of 
Dartmouth College, p. 615. 



14 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the college four years before Stevens entered it. 
"Dr. Wheelock was stiff and stately. He read 
constantly, sat up late, and got up early. He 
talked very gravely and slow, with a falsetto 
voice. Mr. Webster [who graduated in 1801] 
could imitate him perfectly. He had been in 
England, he had had a finger in politics, and 
had been a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the 
Revolution, but there was not the least trace of 
either of these portions of his life in his man- 
ners or conversation at this time. He was one 
of the most formal men I ever knew." ^ 

The course of study at Dartmouth College, in 
1811, was very similar to that of the other col- 
leges of that day. Timothy Dwight, who was 
at the time president of Yale College, has given 
in his ponderous volumes of travel in New York 
and New England an exact statement of the re- 
quirements for admission and the course of study 
at Yale, and he adds that the recital would be 
substantially true for all the New England col- 
leges.^ A candidate for the freshman class was 
examined in Virgil, Cicero and Sallust, in the 
Greek Testament, and in arithmetic. The 
course of study included a little Greek, a mod- 
erate amount of the higher mathematics, and 
considerable Latin. ^ But Paley and Locke were 

^ Life, Letters, and Journal, vol. i. p. 5. 

2 Travels in Netv York and New England, vol. i. p. 199. 

8 Ibid. vol. i. p. 208. 



YOUTH 15 

not neglected at a time when the professors were 
chosen quite as much for the soundness of their 
theological views as for their learning. The 
course contained no modern languages, which, 
indeed, appear to have been little in demand in 
this country at that time, for so late as 1813, 
and in Boston, when George Ticknor attempted 
to study German, he had great difficulty in pro- 
curing the requisite books. ^ 

The course, then, of the New England college 
of that time was most meagre compared with the 
wealth of learning which the modern college af- 
fords; but it was full of strong discipline, and 
it was possible for the earnest student to acquire 
the rudiments of a sound education. The libra- 
ries were not large, but they contained the best 
books, which were doubtless read with great 
care by students who were willing to make such 
sacrifices to secure an education; and some of 
the scholars who were disciplined in those 
schools were able afterwards to contribute new 
models to the English tongue. 

Very little is known of Stevens's life at Dart- 
mouth to distinguish him from the mass of the 
students. There was nothing sensational about 

1 He succeeded in borrowing a grammar from Mr. Everett, 
a text-book from the Athen^um, where it had been deposited 
by J. Q. Adams on going abroad, and then he was forced to 
send to New Hampshire for a dictionary. Journal, vol. i. p. 
11. 



16 THADDEUS STEVENS 

it, and, if we may draw an inference from his 
known industry, it was probably marked by pa- 
tient and plodding labor. He was a hard stu- 
dent, was sensible of the sacrifice made by his 
mother, and there can be little doubt that he took 
away from those "cloisters of the hill-girt plain " 
all that they had to give. His style of speech 
shows the result of study in a degree of accuracy 
unusual among our public men. In the last 
years of his life, when he had attained the dis- 
tinction of being one of the greatest parlia- 
mentary leaders in our history, he delighted in 
showing a contempt for literary form; but at 
the same time his own speech was faultless, and 
Mr. Blaine, who served in Congress with him, 
has borne witness that rarely did a sentence fall 
from his lips even in the most careless moment 
"that would not bear the test of grammatical 
and rhetorical criticism." ^ 

Stevens did not pass the whole of the time 
from 1811 to 1814 in Dartmouth College, but 
for one term, and probably for two, he was a 
student in the University of Vermont. His 
name appears upon the president's list at Bur- 
lington for the second term of 1812-13, and also 
on the programme of the "exhibition" at the 
close of the third term on the afternoon preced- 
ing commencement day in the summer of 1813. 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 325. 



YOUTH 17 

At this exhibition Stevens took part in an 
"English Forensic Disputation" on the ques- 
tion: "Ought the Gospel to be Supjsortecl by 
Law? " On the same day was presented "The 
Fall of Helvetic Liberty," a tragedy in three 
acts, written by Thaddeus Stevens. The "Fall " 
seems to have been a most imposing military 
performance, and to have recognized the desira- 
bility of having many officers and few privates. 
Of the fourteen characters in the play three 
were French and eight were Swiss generals. 
Stevens played one of the parts. 

Stevens is cited as authority for a story, 
which is not wholly agreeable, of an affair which 
occurred while he was in the University of Ver- 
mont, and probably about the time when his 
play was presented. An obstinate resident of 
Burlington insisted upon pasturing his cow upon 
the college campus at commencement time, in 
spite of protests, and the dispute became so 
warm that one night the cow became the inno- 
cent victim of a somewhat practical joke, and 
was killed. Stevens, whose authorship of a tra- 
gedy had prepared him for the act, and another 
student, who had probably aided him in over- 
turning Helvetic Liberty, were guilty of the 
offense, but circumstances pointed strongly to 
a student who was altogether innocent. The 
owner demanded satisfaction, and the suspected 



18 THADDEUS STEVENS 

student was about to be expelled from the col- 
lege. Stevens and his college comrade were free 
from suspicion, but they could not escape pun- 
ishment by keeping silent. They had the alter- 
native of seeing an innocent boy bear the pen- 
alty for their misdeed, or of relieving him by 
making a confession. They promptly decided 
on the latter course, and made a clean breast of 
the matter to the owner of the cow. The man 
proved to be of a generous nature, even if obsti- 
nate. He refused to take pay for the cow, and 
exonerated the student under suspicion without 
exposing the real culprits. Many years after- 
wards Stevens, who never forgot a kindly act, 
sent him a draft for more than the value of the 
cow, and a gold watch and chain. 



CHAPTER II 

THE LAW 

When Stevens graduated from Dartmouth 
College he was twenty-two years old, well edu- 
cated for those days, and wholly dependent upon 
his own resources. He determined to study law, 
a profession which, under the circumstances sur- 
rounding him, offered the shortest road to fame 
and to a livelihood, if not to fortune. In order 
to support himself while studying law, he taught 
school. His native State did not offer the 
opportunities which he desired, and the year 
after graduating he removed to Pennsylvania, 
where he secured a position as instructor in the 
academy which a few years previously had been 
established in the town of York. The place was 
the shire town of a large and flourishing county, 
and he was able to pursue his legal studies under 
favorable conditions. By this move from Ver- 
mont to Pennsylvania he gained a broader field 
for the pursuit of his profession. That, however, 
was the slightest consequence of the step. He 
exchanged a location near the northern frontier 



20 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of the country for one which was then very near 
the centre of our civilization and upon the line 
which, beginning at the Atlantic and stretching 
to our western frontier, with a dip southward, 
formed the line of battle along which was to be 
fought the great contest for freedom. The 
county of York and that of Adams, to which he 
shortly removed, were bounded upon the south 
by the slave territory of the State of Maryland. 
He thus took his place, and doubtless without 
any intention upon his part, in the thick of that 
conflict in which he was destined to win the vic- 
tory which has immortalized his name. 

The struggle to change the location, at vari- 
ous points, of the line which separated the free- 
man and the slave was bitter enough, but it did 
not compare in fierceness or in its influence in 
bringing about the ultimate appeal to the sword 
with the struggle over the degree of tribute 
which the institution of slavery should receive 
from free territory. The Constitution, which 
nowhere used the term slave, provided that no 
person held to service or labor in one State, es- 
caping into another, should be discharged from 
such service, but that he should be delivered 
upon the claim of the owner. Did this mean 
that the inhabitants of the free States were to 
become slave hunters ? Did it mean that a free 
man might be claimed as a slave, and not have 



THE LAW 21 

the great question of his freedom passed upon 
by a jury? Stevens answered both these ques- 
tions in the negative, and from the very mo- 
ment when he settled upon the confines of the 
slave State he became an actor in a real tra- 
gedy which dwarfed the one spun from his ima- 
gination upon Helvetic Liberty. The sight of 
slaves, fleeing for their liberty and, after weeks 
of privation and suffering, gaining the doubtful 
protection afforded them by free soil, was to 
him a common occurrence. Fresh from the 
freedom and the untempered democracy of his 
northern Vermont home, he was peculiarly sen- 
sitive to the spectacle of men being claimed as 
property and remanded into slavery. Undoubt- 
edly his hatred of that "institution" was thus 
made more intense and practical, and his eyes 
were opened to the fact that liberty possessed 
real benefits, and was not a mere abstraction. 

It is certain that while in York he applied 
himself to his law studies with unceasing indus- 
try. Amos Gilbert, a famous Quaker teacher, 
was intimately associated with him at that time, 
and speaks of him as a very modest young man 
and a remarkably hard student. After he had 
read the scanty amount of law then required for 
admission to the bar, he crossed the line to 
Maryland, and took the examination in a court 
which was being held in a neighboring county 



22 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of that State. The reason for this proceeding 
is somewhat obscure. According to one report, 
which rests upon doubtful authority, a special 
rule was made in York County to apply partic- 
ularly to Stevens's case, requiring a certain time 
to be devoted wholly to the study of law. The 
rule itself was a reasonable one, and it may well 
be questioned whether personal hostility to Ste- 
vens was responsible for its existence, for at 
that time he was most retiring in his habits, 
wholly given up to his work as a teacher and 
student, and would not naturally have aroused 
animosity. But whatever was the provocation, 
it is evident that he took the examination in 
Maryland in order to obtain a more speedy ad- 
mission to the Pennsylvania bar, which he could 
have as a matter of courtesy by virtue of his cer- 
tificate of admission in another State. 

He has left an amusing account of his brief 
connection with the Maryland bar. The exam- 
ination took place in the evening before the 
judge and the bar committee. His Honor in- 
formed Stevens that there was one indispensable 
prerequisite to the examination. "There must 
be two bottles of Madeira on the table, and the 
applicant must order it in." Stevens complied 
with the condition, and, after the wine had been 
ordered and disposed of, one of the committee 
asked the applicant what books he had read. 



1 



THE LAW 23 

He replied: "Blackstone, Coke upon Littleton, 
a work on Pleading, and Gilbert on Evidence," 
— a rather slender list, no doubt, but one which, 
if thoroughly mastered, would leave him not 
wholly at a disadvantage with the young prac- 
titioner of to-day, who is so often burdened 
with a multitude of cases that he loses, or never 
secures, a grasp upon the underlying principles. 
He was then asked two or three questions, the 
last of which related to the difference between 
executory devises and contingent remainders. 
A satisfactory answer to this question led his 
Honor again to intervene. "Gentlemen," said 
the judge, "you see the young man is all right. 
I will o:ive him a certificate." But before the 
certificate was delivered, the candidate was in- 
formed that usage required that the ceremony 
should terminate in the way in which it had 
opened, and that two more bottles should be 
produced. Stevens very willingly complied with 
this requirement, was made a member of the 
bar, and was so elated at his success that he 
joined in a game of which he knew nothing, 
with the not unnatural consequence that his slen- 
der stock of money was soon exhausted. The 
next morning he was in the saddle early, with 
his certificate in his pocket, on his way to Penn- 
sylvania. He finally reached his destination 
after narrowly escaping with his life in crossing 



24 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the Susquehanna, and his brief career at the 
Maryland bar terminated as abruptly as it had 
been begun. 

Uncertain in what county he should settle, 
Stevens visited Lancaster, returned to York, 
and finally decided to begin practice in Gettys- 
burg, the capital of the adjacent county of 
Adams, and since made famous by one of the 
greatest and most dramatic of battles. He was 
favored with the usual amount of leisure which 
young lawyers have at their disposal, and doubt- 
less employed it in supplementing his meagre 
preparation by further reading. His expenses 
were small, but his income was still smaller and 
his capital next to nothing. He had no ac- 
quaintance in the county, had had no opportu- 
nity of showing the stuff he was made of, and 
altogether found the prospect to be most dis- 
couraging. Yet he had not long to wait. Be- 
fore many of the inhabitants of that quiet vil- 
lage had become aware of his existence, his 
opportunity came. 

A murder was committed in the neighbor- 
hood, so horrible and so certain in point of 
proof that the older lawyers of the bar did not 
dare to risk their reputations by accepting the 
case of the accused man. Stevens had no repu- 
tation to lose, and, if he had enjoyed a great 
one, it is almost certain that it would not have 



THE LAW 25 

deterred him from defending one who was ac- 
cused of crime and could secure no other counsel. 
At any rate he accepted the case and proved by 
the way in which he conducted it that, while it 
might have destroyed some reputations, it could 
create his own. He astonished everybody by his 
skill, his eloquence, and the display of those 
qualities which, according to a most distinguished 
and by no means partial judge, made him before 
he died the equal of any lawyer in America. 

Very likely Stevens would not have gained 
so much if he had won his case instead of losing 
it. Success in desperate criminal cases not un- 
frequently puts a lawyer in the apparent posi- 
tion of being an accomplice in crime, while a 
vigorous and unsuccessful defense may establish 
his reputation for courage and a patriotic will- 
ingness to demand the observance of all the 
forms of law with whatever risk to himself. In 
this particular case the proof was beyond con- 
troversy that the prisoner had committed the 
act; but his counsel set up the plea of insanity, 
which was a defense far less fashionable and 
certainly less effective at that early day than it 
has since become, and which was then regarded 
as the last resort of the most hopelessly guilty 
criminal. Stevens undoubtedly believed in the 
soundness of the defense. Long afterwards, in 
speaking of the case, he said that he had been 



26 THADDEUS STEVENS 

counsel for the prisoner in more than fifty mur- 
der cases, in all of which but one he had been 
successful, but that every defendant had deserved 
conviction except the one who was hanged. 
That one, he said, was insane. 

Stevens had thus at last established himself, 
and not merely had received a very substantial 
and welcome fee,^ but had at once taken his 
natural place at the head of the Gettysburg bar. 
His fame soon extended into the adjoining coun- 
ties, and he was employed uj)on one side or the 
other of nearly every important cause tried in 
the vicinity. Doubtless these causes were of 
slight consequence financially, if judged by the 
modern standard. Large combinations of capi- 
tal and private corporations, -which contribute 
so much to the successful lawyer of to-day, were 
almost unknown in the first quarter of this cen- 
tury. But the principles involved were not less 
important, their application was not so sordid, 
and the work of Stevens at the bar was broaden- 
ing in the extreme in its influence upon him. 
He did much work gratuitously. Many a col- 
ored man, claimed as a slave, gained his freedom 
through the shrewdness and skill of Stevens, 
who, when legal expedients failed, sometimes 
paid the ransom out of his own pocket. For 

^ Fifteen hundred dollars. Harris, Biographical History of 
Lancaster County, p. 575. 



THE LAW 27 

fifteen years he devoted liimseK unremittingly 
to his profession, and gained in actual practice 
that knowledge of the law, which, joined with 
his natural qualities, made him a great lawyer. 



CHAPTER III 

ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE — FREE SCHOOLS 

It was from necessity that Stevens had as yet 
refrained from gratifying his natural passion for 
politics. The Federalist party, to which he be- 
longed, had disappeared, and there was no party 
for him to join excepting the one to whose prin- 
ciples he was opposed. In 1827 he was on the 
same side of a lawsuit with James Buchanan, 
then entering upon a political career destined 
to become distinguished. Buchanan advised 
him to support Jackson, but Stevens did not 
take the advice seriously, or at least he did 
not follow it. He did not believe in the political 
principles represented by Jackson, but, on the 
contrary, was ready to unite with any organiza- 
tion opposed to him which had any chance of 
success. With the exception of occasionally 
serving upon the Gettysburg town council he 
appears to have taken no part in politics in the 
early days of his practice. 

Suddenly, however, a new issue forced itself 
upon the attention of the country, entirely dis- 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 29 

connected with previous poKtical questions, and 
wliicli promised for the moment to overshadow 
all other issues. The abduction and probable 
murder of William Morgan by members of the 
Masonic order, and their subsequent trial, pro- 
duced an intense feeling of indignation in many- 
parts of the Union, and quickly forced into poli- 
tics the question of the wisdom of secret socie- 
ties, and particularly of the Freemasons. An 
anti-Masonic party at once appeared in New 
York, which mustered 33,000 votes, and at the 
following election increased its membership to 
70,000. The effect of the Morgan incident was 
undoubtedly exaggerated, but it gave alarm to 
many good people. Stevens instinctively sym- 
pathized with the principles of the new party, 
and was one of the first men in Pennsylvania to 
declare his adhesion to it. The broad plane of 
American citizenship was none too broad for him. 
He denounced an institution whose members, he 
believed, were banded together by an oath to con- 
trol a government whose blessings they shared, 
and to pervert the administration of justice in 
their own favor. He declared that Masonry was 
an imperium in imperio, and that republican in- 
stitutions were endangered by its continuance. 
Largely through his leadership the opposition to 
the Democratic party in Pennsylvania was con- 
solidated under the name of the anti-Masonic 



30 THADDEUS STEVENS 

party, and it made an energetic but unsuccessful 
camj)aign in 1829, having Joseph Kitner as its 
candidate for governor. 

For a time this issue promised to furnish 
a rallying cry for a great national party. A 
national convention was held in Baltimore in 
September, 1831, and placed William Wirt in 
nomination for the presidency. Stevens was 
one of the moving spirits of the convention, and 
among his colleagues were men no less conspicu- 
ous than Abner Phelps and Amasa Walker of 
Massachusetts, and William H. Seward of New 
York. The result of the campaign was disas- 
trous, and showed the futility of attempting to 
construct a national party ujion this single idea. 
Wirt received the electoral vote of only one 
State, and that the State in which Stevens was 
born. The truth underlying the new party was 
too narrow and too self-evident. Masonry itself 
languished, men quitted its ranks in great nimi- 
bers, and many of its lodges were closed. But 
the American people declined to divide upon 
this particular question. Parties are evolved 
upon broader and more complex issues, and 
anti-Masonry stands as the first but by no 
means the last illustration in our history of at- 
tempting to produce a great political party to 
order upon a single question. 

Stevens, however, did not at once give up 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 31 

tlie fight. He doubtless perceived that the idea 
was not without some elements of popularity, as 
well as of justice, and popularity was not un- 
grateful to him while he was in search of a per- 
manent party with which he could ally himself. 
The party of Jackson was then of overshadow- 
ing importance ; the Whig party was just com- 
ing into being, and he was very willing to 
strengthen this nascent organization by what- 
ever elements of attraction remained in anti- 
Masonry. 

In 1833 Stevens took his seat as a member 
of the Pennsylvania House of Kepresentatives 
from Adams County. He had reached the ma- 
ture age of forty-one years without having borne 
any part in parliamentary affairs. But for fif- 
teen years he had closely followed the practice 
of his profession, and had acquired a thorough 
knowledge of law as well as a readiness and 
self-possession from the constant trial of causes 
which gave him an admirable training for his 
new work. He very quickly took rank among 
the leading members of his party by his trench- 
ant and vigorous attacks upon Jackson and his 
supporters. Very early in the session he intro- 
duced a resolution aimed at Masonry. It pro- 
vided that an inquiry be made into the expe- 
diency of a law making Freemasonry a good 
cause of peremptory challenge in all cases where 



32 THADDEUS STEVENS 

one of the jsarties was, and the other was not, a 
Mason ; also in criminal cases in which the de- 
fendant was a Mason ; and providing finally that 
a judge who was a member of the order should 
be disqualified from trying a case in which one 
of the parties was also a member. This resolu- 
tion was defeated, but by a majority of only 
eleven votes. 

On March 27, 1834, as the chairman of a 
committee appointed to investigate Masonry, he 
submitted a report which was a caustic attack 
upon the House itself for refusing to sanction 
the summoning of witnesses, and upon the Dem- 
ocratic governor and other Masons who held 
office. It could hardly be called a judicial doc- 
ument, but was an apt attempt at "playing 
politics." 

"It was," says this report, "intended that the 
governor of this Commonwealth should become 
a witness, and have a full opportunity of ex- 
plaining, under oath, the principles and prac- 
tices of the order of which he is so conspicuous 
a member. It was thought that the papers in 
his possession might throw much light on the 
question how far Masonry secures political and 
executive favor. This inspection would have 
shown whether it be true that applications for 
office have been founded on Masonic writ and 
claimed as Masonic rights; whether in such 



ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE 33 

applications the 'significant symbols' and mys- 
tic watchwords of Masonry have been used, and 
in how many cases such applications have been 
successful in securing executive patronage. It 
might not have been unprofitable also to inquire 
how many converted felons, who have been par- 
doned by the recent governor, were brethren of 
the ' mystic tie. ' The committee might have 
deemed it necessary, in the faithful discharge 
of their duty, to have called before them some of 
the judges, who are Masons, to ascertain whether, 
in their official characters, the 'grand hailing 
sign ' has ever been handed, sent, or thrown to 
them by either of the parties litigant, and if so, 
what has been the result of the trial." 

During the same session Stevens secured, in 
the face of a determined opposition, the pas- 
sage of a bill making a liberal appropriation 
for Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg. His 
speech does not appear to have survived, but the 
editor of the "Harrisburg Telegraph" declared 
at the time that it " was one never excelled, if 
ever equaled in the hall."^ In grateful recog- 
nition of this event and of his other services in 
the cause of education, one of the finest build- 
ings of the college was given the name of Stevens 
Hall. 

Stevens was reelected to the legislature in 
^ See Pennsylvania School Journal, February, 1891. 



34 THADDEUS STEVENS 

1834, and renewed the attack upon Masonry by 
offering a bill to suppress it, but his party was 
in a minority, and his bill was defeated by 
twenty votes. It was during this session that 
Stevens rendered his great service to the public 
school system, and against great odds achieved 
a victory which he regarded, even after he had 
won his wide fame, as the greatest achievement 
of his life. For many years the system had 
prevailed in Pennsylvania of furnishing public 
education, as of providing public subsistence, 
only to self-confessed paupers. In order to get 
his children educated at the public expense, it 
was necessary for the father or guardian to 
make it aj)pear that he was not able to furnish 
them the means of education, and in such a 
case instruction would be doled out as bread or 
meat would be doled out if he were unable to 
buy food. The system was substantially that 
illustrated by the Friends' Public School, estab- 
lished in 1697, — a system for the education 
of "the rich at reasonable rates, the poor to be 
maintained and schooled for nothing." During 
the colonial times the church and local schools 
were generally conducted upon this principle.^ 
The establishment of free institutions gave birth 
to notions of equality which made it impossible 
to continue a system under which a distinction 
^ Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 294. 



FREE SCHOOLS 35 

was maintained in the public schools between 
the children who paid and those who were re- 
garded as public charges. "The class distinc- 
tions," says Wickersham, "that had been broken 
up in general society, could not be preserved in 
the school." Eather than permit poor children 
to be educated under conditions so fatal to their 
self-respect, their parents kept them at home. 

The system was first cast aside in Philadel- 
phia, which provided for free schools at the pub- 
lic expense. The agitation for the extension of 
the Philadelphia plan to the whole State finally 
bore fruit in the act of 1834, which, with many 
defects in details, recognized the grand princi- 
ple of free public schools for all, and was passed 
with only a single dissenting vote. But like 
most noble things this principle involved some 
cost. There were the taxes, and there is no 
more certain method of stirring up the public 
opinion of a virtuous, thrifty and frugal people, 
such as then inhabited Pennsylvania, than by 
pricking their pocketbooks. They were willing 
to have reform, provided it did not come high or 
they were not compelled to pay for it. A violent 
reaction arose. Nearly half the districts in the 
State rejected the act or contemptuously ignored 
it. They were ready to do sweet charity and 
furnish schooling for the children of paupers, 
but they could not consent to a system which 



36 THADDEUS STEVENS 

took by taxation the money of those who had no 
children and devoted it to the education of the 
children of the well-to-do. Thus it came to pass 
that the good Commonwealth, through all her 
rich valleys and across her noble mountains, was 
shaken from the Delaware to the Ohio, and a 
legislature of stern Spartans was sent to Harris- 
burg to wipe out the law. 

The Senate made short work of it. That 
body summarily voted to repeal the essential 
parts of the act by a bill which bore the inspir- 
ing title, "An act making provision for the 
education of the poor gratis.^^ This bill passed 
the Senate by a vote of nearly two to one, and 
among its supporters were found thirteen sena- 
tors who had voted for free schools at the pre- 
ceding session. 1 It then went to the House. 

Many members of the preceding legislature 
had lost their seats by their incautious vote for 
free education, and had given place to its pro- 
nounced opponents. The legislature was inun- 
dated by petitions for repeal. A committee 
favorable to the law reported that the number 
of signers was "deplorably large," and that 
32,000 had petitioned for repeal, while only 
2500 remonstrated against it. The Democratic 
members passed a vote at a caucus, requesting 
the Democratic governor, who was a friend of 

^ Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 237. 



FREE SCHOOLS 37 

the law, not to oppose its repeal, since a veto of 
the bill, which seemed sure to pass, would defeat 
him for reelection. ^ During a considerable por- 
tion of the time while this tempest was raging, 
Stevens was absent from Harrisburg. Upon his 
return, his colleague from Adams County, who 
was a warm friend of the law, informed him 
that the bill repealing the act had passed the 
Senate with only eight dissenting votes; that 
the test vote of reference in the House showed 
a majority of thirty in its favor, and that the 
friends of the law had consulted together and 
decided that it was useless to oppose the repeal. 
He also advised him that they were bound to 
vote for the repeal, as three quarters of their 
constituents had petitioned for it.^ 

The situation was desperate, and the cause 
of the law seemed lost. The Senate bill to re- 
peal came up in the House on April 10 and 11, 
1835. Up to that hour the popular excitement, 
which is so often the precursor of an opposite 
ultimate popular opinion, had gone on unchecked 
and carried everything before it. One obstacle, 
however, stood in the path of repeal. There 
was one representative who would no more 
pander to a popular passion, of which he be- 
lieved the people would repent as soon as their 

1 Bates, Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, p. 983. 

2 Ibid., p. 984. 



38 THADDEUS STEVENS 

eyes were opened, than he would pander to a 
mob. The people might reject him, but so long 
as he was their representative he would follow 
his convictions of duty. He braved the storm 
when it was at its fiercest pitch, and boldly 
moved to strike out all the Senate bill after the 
enacting clause, and to substitute for it a bill 
strengthening the law which it proposed to re- 
peal. Upon that motion he made his speech, 
which, even from the imperfect reports, must 
be regarded as a powerful argument, and from 
the uniform accounts of those who heard it must 
rank with the great parliamentary speeches. 
Certainly it produced an effect second to no 
speech ever uttered in an American legislative 
assembly. 

The hall was packed to suffocation. Nearly 
the entire Senate and most of the principal 
state officers were present, as well as the mem- 
bers of the House. Stevens was in the prime 
of manhood. His form had outgrown the slen- 
derness of youth, and it was not bent with that 
heavy weight of years which he dragged along 
when, a generation later, he moved, a porten- 
tous figure, across the stage of the national 
House of Kepresentatives. He was erect and 
majestic. He may not indeed have had the ap- 
pearance of "a descended god," as one of his 
fellow members who has described the scene has 



FREE SCHOOLS 39 

portrayed him, but we can well believe the 
accounts of the wonderful beauty of those chis- 
eled features which never lost their eagle look 
even to his dying day. It is fortunate that this 
early portrait of him survives to remind us that 
he was once young, and to enable us to trace 
out the immortal lineaments of his beauty. 
Otherwise he would have wandered forever 
through history as the broken old man of more 
than threescore and ten, such as he was at the 
hour of his great fame and when the world first 
knew him. 

Many references to the speech, by those who 
heard it, have been preserved, and they are uni- 
formly of the most flattering character. I will 
refer to only two of them. The venerable Dr. 
George Smith, who had been a member of the 
legislature of 1834, wrote, nearly fifty years 
later, that "the House was electrified," and the 
"school system was saved from ignominious 
defeat." The Harrisburg correspondent of the 
"American Daily Advertiser " of Philadelphia 
attempted to preserve the occasion by a report 
which is all the more forcible because given in 
the unsensational manner of that day. After 
crediting Stevens with preventing the repeal of 
the law, he declared that "the speech of this gen- 
tleman was the ablest I have ever heard." He 
then endeavored to furnish a synopsis of the 



IK aim •l.">«k<'^rT~ 



40 THADDEUS STEVENS 

speech, but he threw up the task in despair, and 
confessed that he was "unable to give even an 
outline o£ this most masterly production." 

I know it is easy to give an undue effect to 
contemporary eulogy. Before the days of ste- 
nographers almost any orator could be great. 
Usually no printed record would survive for 
refutation, and it would only be necessary, a 
generation or a century later, for some writer 
of fine imaginative powers to dwell with particu- 
larity upon the pose, the gesture, the eye, the 
forefinger, — especially the forefinger, — the 
immaterial detail of language being omitted, 
and thus a possibly empty effort might be sent 
down to posterity as a great oration. 

But when every allowance is made from the 
reports of the affair which have been handed 
down, the effect in this instance proved the work- 
ing of a prodigious cause. The House immedi- 
ately voted, when Stevens sat down ; the victory 
so confidently anticipated by the friends of repeal 
was suddenly turned into defeat, and the motion 
of Stevens was carried by a nearly two-thirds 
vote. Most remarkable of all, the Senate, 
which but a short time before had so decisively 
voted for repeal, returned to its chamber, thrilled 
and delighted with the great effort, converted 
as no Senate had ever been converted before, 
and immediately concurred, with a few unim- 



FREE SCHOOLS 41 

portant amendments, in the House substitute 
bill. 

Governor Wolf was a loyal friend of free 
schools. Politically, he was opposed to Stevens. 
But he immediately sent for him after his great 
and unexpected triumph in the House, and, 
throwing his arms about his neck, warmly 
thanked him for the great service he had "ren- 
dered to our common humanity."^ Some of 
the enthusiastic friends of the system he had 
saved had portions of the speech beautifully 
printed on silk, and presented it to Stevens. 

Although the speech itself was only imperfectly 
reported, enough remains to show its wonderful 
vigor and its condensed and weighty style. In 
denouncing the former law, which afforded edu- 
cation at the public expense for those alone who 
acknowledged that they were too poor to educate 
themselves, he said: "Hereditary distinctions of 
rank are sufficiently odious ; but that which is 
founded upon poverty is infinitely more so. 
Such a law should be entitled ' An Act for 
Branding and Marking the Poor.' " 

He had said many sharp and bitter things 
about Governor WoK, who was a Democrat, 
but that official was a friend of the system which 
Stevens was advocating, and he was defended in 

1 Colonel J. W. Forney in Washington Chronicle. See the 
Pennsylvania School Journal, vol. xxxix. p. 331. 



42 THADDEUS STEVENS 

one of the most effective passages of the speech. 
"I have seen the present chief magistrate of 
this Commonwealth violently assailed as the 
projector and father of this law. I am not the 
eulogist of that gentleman ; he has been guilty 
of many deej) political sins. But he deserves 
the undying gratitude of the people for the 
steady, untiring zeal which he has manifested 
in favor of common schools. I will not say that 
his exertions in that cause have covered all, but 
they have atoned for many of his errors. I 
trust that the people of this State will never be 
called upon to choose between a supporter and 
opposer of free schools. But if it should come 
to that — if that should be made the turning- 
point on which we are to cast our suffrages — 
if the opponent of education were my most inti- 
mate personal and political friend, and the free- 
school candidate my most obnoxious enemy, I 
should deem it my duty as a patriot, at this 
moment of our intellectual crisis, to forget all 
other considerations, and I should place myself 
unhesitatingly and cordially in the ranks of him 
whose banner streams in light." 

He very ingeniously answered the argument 
that those who had no children and paid the 
tax received no benefit from it. It was directly 
for their benefit, "inasmuch as it perpetuates 
the government and insures the due administra- 



FREE SCHOOLS 43 

tion of the laws under which they live, and by 
which their lives and property are protected." 
The industrious and wealthy farmer paid a 
heavy tax to support criminal courts and jails, 
but "he never gets the worth of his money, by 
being tried for a crime before the court, al- 
lowed the privilege of a jail on conviction, or 
receiving an equivalent from the sheriff or his 
hangmen ofBcers. He cheerfully pays the tax 
which is necessary to support and punish con- 
victs, but loudly complains of that which goes 
to prevent his fellow being from becoming a 
criminal, and to obviate the necessity of those 
humiliating institutions." 

He regretted that any member should have 
consented to receive an election upon a platform 
of hostility to popular education. "If honest 
ambition were his object, he will erelong lament 
that he attempted to raise his monument of 
glory on so muddy a foundation." He would 
admit that the "war-club and battle-axe of 
savage ignorance " were dangerous to a public 
man in "the present state of feeling in Pennsyl- 
vania;" but he urged members not to cherish 
"the prejudice and errors " of their constituents, 
but to play the part of the philanthropist and 
the hero, even "if it be true, as you say, that 
popular vengeance follows close upon your foot- 
steps." 



44 THADDEUS STEVENS 

He pointed out a glorious pathway for Penn- 
sylvania, if her legislators should provide the 
means for polishing the "bright intellectual 
gems " of her children, and should learn to build 
her monuments not "of brass or marble, but 
to make them of ever-living mind." Neither 
fame nor honor could "long be perpetuated by 
mere matter." Of that Egypt furnished "mel- 
ancholy proof." The pyramids which she had 
raised to her monarchs seemed "as durable as 
the everlasting hills, yet the deeds and the 
names they were intended to perpetuate are no 
longer known on earth. . . . Instead of doing 
deeds worthy to be recorded in history, their 
very names are unknown. . . . Who would 
not rather do one living deed than to have his 
ashes forever enshrined in ever-burnished gold ? 
Sir, I trust that when we come to act on this 
question we shall take lofty ground — look be- 
yond the narrow space which now circumscribes 
our vision — beyond the passing, fleeting point 
of time on which we stand — and so cast our 
votes that the blessing of education shall be con- 
ferred on every son of Pennsylvania — shall be 
carried home to the poorest child of the poorest 
inhabitant of the meanest hut of your moun- 
tains." 

Speeches have sometimes changed the action 
of a legislative body when its mind had been 



^ 



FREE SCHOOLS 45 

apparently made up. But a large majority o£ 
the Pennsylvania House had been chosen with 
reference to the educational issue and for the 
purpose of repealing that portion of the law 
which made schools free. The speech of Stevens 
decisively turned them from that purpose. It is 
doubtful if his achievement can be matched in 
the history of legislative assemblies. Certainly 
it at once established his position among the 
very ablest men in Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER IV 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION — THE "BUCK- 
SHOT war" — ELECTED TO CONGRESS 

The decisive victory upon the free-school 
question was acquiesced in by all parties, and 
the political campaign of 1835 was waged upon 
other issues. All the elements of opposition 
to Jackson were at last combined in the anti- 
Masonic party, which again nominated Ritner 
as its candidate for governor. The attitude of 
Jackson towards the national bank had alien- 
ated many of his friends in Pennsylvania, where 
that institution was popular. Ritner was elected, 
and his party also secured a majority of the 
members of the House of Representatives. 
Stevens was again chosen to membership in 
that body. He at once renewed the Masonic 
contest, and upon his motion a committee was 
appointed to investigate that and other secret 
societies. Wolf, the former governor, and many 
other prominent Masons, were summoned, but 
they declined to testify. The House refused to 
commit the witnesses for contempt, and the in- 
vestigation resulted in nothing. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 47 

During this session of the legislature Stevens 
introduced a bill to confer a state charter upon 
the United States Bank, of which the national 
charter was about to expire by limitation. This 
action occasioned one of the most animated 
political contests of the session, and the charter 
finally passed both houses, and was approved 
by the governor. This step by Pennsylvania 
was met by hostile legislation in the States con- 
trolled by the Democrats, some of which enacted 
laws prohibiting within their limits any branch 
of the Pennsylvania United States Bank. The 
new institution purchased the assets of the de- 
funct United States Bank, and after a brief and 
not glorious career, it suspended jmyment in the 
panic of 1837, in common with nearly all the 
banks in the country. 

In the fall of 1836, Stevens was chosen a 
member of the convention which had been or- 
dered by popular vote to consider amendments 
to the Constitution of the State. The conven- 
tion assembled in May, 1837, and included 
among its members the ablest men of all par- 
ties. A majority of them, however, were De- 
mocratic in politics, and were evidently disposed 
to recast the Constitution upon partisan lines. 
This disposition was combated and very likely 
intensified by Stevens, who displayed all his 
natural radicalism in his treatment of the pro- 



48 THADDEUS STEVENS 

positions of wliicli he disapproved. He doubt- 
less could have exercised some influence in 
moulding the new document, but, since it was 
to be disfigured by any partisan blemishes, he 
evidently preferred to retain the old Constitu- 
tion with all its outgrown or inadequate provi- 
sions. 

The stormy debates of this assembly fill thir- 
teen large volumes, and appear to be more ap- 
propriate for a partisan legislature than a body 
reforming the organic law of a great State. 
Stevens did not regularly attend the sessions of 
the convention, but when he was present he 
contributed his full share of personalities to the 
debates; he rarely lost an opportunity to take 
a hand in a personal encounter, and his ready 
and often bitter wit placed him easily at the 
head in contests of that character. He gener- 
ally opposed propositions to recognize class dis- 
tinctions or to discriminate against any man on 
account of his color. As finally adopted by the 
convention, the Constitution limited the right of 
suffrage to "white" citizens. Stevens refused 
to affix his name to a document containing such 
a race discrimination, and although delegates of 
all parties finally signed it, his name is conspic- 
uous by its absence. 

At about this time Stevens also attended a 
convention at Harrisburg, the members of which 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 49 

styled themselves the "friends of the integrity 
of the Union." The convention was called by 
the supporters of slavery, who proposed to pre- 
serve the Union by repressing the agitation in 
favor of freedom. In some way Stevens se- 
cured a seat in the body, but he was evidently 
present for the purpose of making the move- 
ment ridiculous, and his efforts in that direc- 
tion were crowned with complete success. It 
would be difficult to find a better illustration of 
his self-command in a deliberative body. He 
held those views upon slavery which the conven- 
tion was called to denounce, and yet he soon made 
himself the central figure of the proceedings, and 
by points of order, by objections to the form 
of resolutions, by his eloquence and unsparing 
sarcasm, the leaders of the movement were soon 
thrown into dismay, and were glad to propose a 
final adjournment. It was equally impossible 
either to answer or to suppress him. The cur- 
rent newspaper report, which preserves a con- 
densed statement of the proceedings, explains 
in a parenthesis that "so electric was the effect 
of Mr. Stevens's sallies here that no reporter 
can touch their magic or picture their effect on 
the hearers, who frequently renewed their ap- 
plause a second time after the first burst had 
subsided." The following will afford an exam- 
ple of these "sallies." In one of the discussions 



50 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Stevens so completely demonstrated the absurd- 
ity of a proposed resolution that one of the 
members declared that, while he abhorred aboli- 
tionism, he could never indorse such a doctrine. 
This aroused a clergyman, who was apparently 
the leading spirit in the movement, and he took 
the floor to ask how a man with any sense of 
honor, "knowing himself to hold the abominable 
doctrines of the abolitionists, can come here in 
sheep's clothing and sit among the friends of 
the Union, while in his heart he is wishing to 
throw his firebrands to consume it." Stevens 
thereupon rebuked the clergyman for becoming 
personal. "I meant no person in particular," 
was the reply. "Indeed," said Stevens, "I cer- 
tainly understood the gentleman to more than 
insinuate that my friend yonder," pointing to 
his new recruit, whose hair was a bright red, 
"looked very much like a firebrand." 

Stevens served in the legislature of 1838, and 
made a notable speech in favor of endowing the 
colleges and higher institutions of learning in 
the State. This speech lacks the fierce energy 
of his free-school speech, but was more carefully 
prepared. 

In the same year he was appointed by Governor 
Ritner a member of the Board of Canal Commis- 
sioners, which had charge of the expenditures 
of large sums of money in internal improvements, 



THE BUCKSHOT WAR 51 

and during the heated political campaign of that 
year he was charged with not being unmindful 
of the interests of the Whig party in disbursing 
the money. The campaign was a most exciting 
one, and, as a result, Kitner, the Whig candi- 
date for reelection as governor, was defeated by 
a slender majority. Stevens was again chosen a 
member of the House. Both parties claimed 
the legislature. There were two returns from 
the city of Philadelphia, one made by the De- 
mocratic members of the returning board who 
constituted a majority, and the other by the 
Whig: members. The former return declared 
the Democrats to have been elected, and the 
latter declared in favor of the Whigs. There 
was a sufficient number of seats involved in the 
controversy to determine which party should or- 
ganize the legislature and elect a United States 
senator. 

The secretary of state recognized the return 
made by the Whigs, and in doing so he did no 
violence to his political convictions, as he was 
the chairman of the Whig campaign committee. 
He also indulged in a remarkable proclamation 
announcing that the election of the Democratic 
candidate for governor would be treated as a 
nullity until an investigation could be held. 
The legislature assembled in the most excited 
frame of mind, and two hostile bodies of men, 






52 THADDEUS STEVENS 

sitting in the same hall, proceeded at the same 
time to elect a speaker. Stevens was the leader 
of the Whigs, and nominated his candidate, ap- 
pointed tellers, and declared him triumphantly- 
elected. In a somewhat similar fashion the 
Democrats elected their candidate. 

The State-house was, of course, thronged 
with people who were partisans of one side or 
the other, and were not present entirely in the 
interests of peace. The struggle, as is not 
unusual in controversies of that nature, was 
attended with a great amount of noise, but no 
blood was spilled. The only one who appears 
to have been in any serious danger was Stevens 
himself, who was compelled to make his escape 
from the state-house through a window. The 
governor, doubtless with the approval of Ste- 
vens, if not at his instigation, issued a procla- 
mation announcing that a "lawless, infuriated, 
armed mob " had assembled in the city for the 
purpose of overawing the legislature, and he 
called upon the civil authorities to restore order, 
and upon the military forces to hold themselves 
in readiness to render assistance. 

Fearing that the militia might be called out, 
the Democrats made a demonstration, although 
an ineffective one, against the state arsenal. 
Some men, claiming to represent Stevens and 
the governor, agreed with the leaders of the 



THE BUCKSHOT WAR 53 

mob that no arms should be taken from the 
arsenal for the use of the state forces. Stevens 
thereupon wrote a letter to a newspaper, declar- 
ing that he had held no communication with 
"the rebels," — which long remained with him 
a favorite epithet, — and that it would be " dis- 
graceful to treat with the rebels on any subject." 

It would scarcely be profitable to set forth 
here the details of the so-called "buckshot war," 
in which no one was killed, and not even a shot 
was fired, but which was made both noisy and 
ridiculous by proclamations, by calls upon the 
national government for assistance, and by acri- 
monious and insulting communications from the 
one party to the other. A contest, of which 
Stevens directed one side, could not be an inde- 
cisive one. Victory would certainly fall to one 
contestant or the other. There would be no 
compromise. In this case victory was with the 
Democrats. They retained possession of the 
representatives' chamber, inaugurated their 
governor, and the Whig representatives either 
surrendered by taking their seats in the Demo- 
cratic House, or went home and abandoned the 
contest. Stevens refused to submit, and re- 
mained absent from the House during the whole 
session. 

A special session of the legislature was 
called the following spring. There could be no 



64 THADDEUS STEVENS 

doubt that, as a legally elected member, it was 
Stevens's riglit to be present. To make his 
duty still more clear, and probably to relieve 
him from the appearance of a surrender, his 
constituents passed resolutions requesting him 
to attend this session. Stevens replied that his 
opinion of the legality of the "Hopkins House" 
remained unshaken; that he believed it to be 
"a usurping body forced upon the State by a 
band of rebels," but that in obedience to the 
wishes of his constituents he would attend the 
House at the adjourned session in spite of his 
repugnance. He accordingly was present when 
the House again convened. 

But his part had been too conspicuous in the 
"buckshot war," in which the most deadly mis- 
siles had been set in motion by his own tongue. 
He was met by a resolution offered by Thomas 
B. McElwee, the Democratic leader, calling 
for the appointment of a committee to investi- 
gate whether he was elected, and if so, whether 
he had forfeited his seat by "mal-conduct." 
Stevens contemptuously refused to appear before 
this committee, and replied to its summons by a 
letter which conclusively established the illegal- 
ity of the proceedings and his absolute right of 
membership. The House then adopted a reso- 
lution by a party vote, declaring the seat vacant, 
and ordering a new election. Stevens had de- 



THE BUCKSHOT WAR 55 

termined not to be a candidate again for the 
legislature, but this indefensible proceeding in- 
duced him to change his mind, and he at once 
issued an address to his constituents announcing 
that he would accept a reelection to the seat 
which had been declared vacant. 

It was evident, however, that he had not 
changed his opinion concerning the "Hopkins 
House." His address set forth that "a major- 
ity of that body, using the same unconstitu- 
tional and unlawful means which invested them 
with official authority, refused to allow me to 
occupy that seat to which I have been called by 
the free choice of my fellow citizens." He then 
denounced them as "tyrants," who had deter- 
mined "to oppress and plunder the people." 
There was much more to the same effect. The 
people administered a fitting rebuke to the 
"tyrants " by again electing Stevens. This 
time he was permitted to take his seat, but as 
the legislature adjourned within a few days, 
there was very little opportunity for him to 
repay his persecutors. He had not long, how- 
ever, to wait for his revenge. The legislature 
which met the following winter gave him expia- 
tion by expelling McElwee, the Democratic 
leader, who was responsible for the expulsion 
of Stevens.^ 

1. Callendar, Thaddeus Stevens, Commoner, p. 49. 



56 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Once again, in 1841, Stevens was elected to 
the legislature, and rendered most useful ser- 
vice. The speech which he then made in favor 
of the right of petition produced an impression 
almost as profound as that in favor of free 
schools, and attracted the attention of the 
country. He also championed a resolution 
limiting the amount of the state debt, which 
passed the House by a large majority; also his 
speech against a bill hostile to the banks was 
most effective. With the session of 1842 his 
career as an occupant of state office came to an 
end. He retired from that service with the 
hatred and fear of the opposition party, and 
with the admiration, and possibly the fear, of 
his own. There can be no doubt that he had 
earned both these extremes of opinion. While 
an intense partisan, the influence of party could 
not restrain him when he differed with it, as he 
so often did. He had won an acknowledged 
position as the most formidable debater and 
perhaps the greatest orator at that time in 
public life in Pennsylvania. One of the lead- 
ing organs of his own party, the "Harrisburg 
Telegraph," speaks of him at this time as a 
"giant among his pigmy opponents," and ac- 
cords him "the most commanding abilities." 

His fame had extended beyond the borders 
of his State. He took a conspicuous part in 



THE BUCKSHOT WAR 57 

support of Harrison for the presidency in 1840, 
and it was believed in Pennsylvania that he was 
to have a seat in the cabinet.^ The position he 
had attained in his party may be inferred from 
the fact that two years before his final retire- 
ment from the legislature, the friends of Har- 
rison thought his support for the Whig presi- 
dential nomination of great value. Colonel 
McClure, who is high authority concerning 
Pennsylvania politics, makes the statement that 
Harrison sent to Stevens, through Mr. Purdy, 
"an autograph letter, voluntarily proposing that 
if Harrison should be nominated, and elected 
President, Stevens would be made a member of 
the cabinet." McClure adds that Stevens was 
one of the strongest of the leaders in the con- 
vention, and that "he finally controlled the 
nomination for Harrison." ^ Stevens appeared 
content to rest upon Harrison's promise, and 
was astonished, when the cabinet was announced, 
to find that it had been forgotten or repudiated, 
and that his name did not appear in the list. 

The devotion of Stevens to politics had been 

1 " That Harrison had selected him for postmaster general 
is known with certainty, but through the open opposition of 
Clay and the wavering of Webster the appointment was given 
to Mr. Granger." Harris, Biographical History of Lancaster 
County, p. 582. 

^ McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Times, p. 261. 



58 THADDEUS STEVENS 

attended with the neglect of his private affairs. 
Through the operations of a partner in the iron 
business he found himself, at fifty years of age, 
in debt to the amount of more than two hundred 
thousand dollars. His temporary retirement 
from politics had become imperatively necessary, 
and to secure a wider field for his professional 
practice he removed from Gettysburg to Lan- 
caster. Alexander Hood, who was a law stu- 
dent in Stevens's office, and for many years 
an intimate friend, is authority for the state- 
ment^ that in 1843 his debts amounted to 
$217,000. It is certain that when he estab- 
lished himself at Lancaster, he was in deeper 
poverty than when, a j)enniless young man, he 
began his practice in Gettysburg a quarter of 
a century before. But he had a reputation 
as a lawyer and a public man, which preceded 
him, and he had the necessary business talent 
to straighten out the tangled affairs of his 
iron business, and, to some extent, to retrieve 
his disaster. In six years, according to Hood, 
he succeeded in reducing his indebtedness to 
$30,000. 

He began practice at Lancaster in 1842. 
The bar of that county numbered among its 
members some of the ablest lawyers of Pennsyl- 
vania. Although already well known on account 
^ Harris, Biographical History of Lancaster County. 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS 59 

of his prominence in politics and his standing as 
a lawyer, he was again compelled to produce his 
passports, and to prove by actual contest his 
right to preeminence. The test came soon. He 
was retained in an important civil suit against 
Benjamin Champneys, the acknowledged leader 
of the bar. Stevens's mastery of his case and 
his method of presenting it so clearly estab- 
lished his superiority that he at once stepped 
into a position of acknowledged leadership, a 
position which he held unchallenged at the Lan- 
caster bar until the day of his death. The 
rapid growth of his practice may be inferred 
from the fact that at the first session of the 
Supreme Court held in Harrisburg, after he 
settled in Lancaster, he was counsel in four of 
the six cases which came up from his county. 
In the next year he appeared in six of the eight 
cases, in addition to pleading cases from other 
counties. His practice brought him an income 
of from $12,000 to $15,000 a year, which may 
be esteemed an extraordinary amount when the 
time and the location are considered.^ 

His success was attested by the imitation 
with which he was flattered by his fellow mem- 
bers. When he came to the Lancaster bar its 
advocates were in the habit of making inter- 
minable addresses to the court and jury, but 
1 Harris, Political Conflict in America, p. 87. 



60 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Stevens soon cured tliem of this practice by the 
force of his example. His speeches were con- 
densed, brief, and terribly to the point, and 
they were usually successful. He would unerr- 
ingly detect the vital question, and he never 
wasted his time upon side issues or trifles. His 
example was soon followed by his professional 
brethren. It was not his habit to take notes, but 
no portion of the evidence escaped his marvelous 
memory, and, disregarding the chaff, he fixed in 
the minds of the jurymen that which was im- 
portant to his side of the case, and demolished 
with his ridicule the testimony which would 
tell asrainst him. While he had the choice of 
causes at the bar, he did not confine himself 
to those which paid large fees ; and especially 
when proceedings were had for the return of 
fugitive slaves, he was almost always found con- 
tributing his services to the defense of the negro. 
His speeches in the fugitive slave cases were 
the most eloquent and usually the most success- 
ful that he ever made in court. The evidence 
against the black man for whom he spoke had 
to be conclusive beyond all controversy what- 
ever, or the white claimant had no chance to 
prevail. 

Stevens did not establish himself so quickly 
in Lancaster County in politics as he did in 
law. He was a Whig, but his devotion to the 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS 61 

lost cause of anti-Masonry had offended many 
influential members of his party who were Ma- 
sons, while his radical views and methods of 
procedure led others to distrust his ability to 
become a safe leader. The "machine" of the 
Whig party in Lancaster offered him no en- 
couragement, and he soon recognized the fact 
that he must fight his own way into the leader- 
ship or remain in the background. He at once 
decided to fight ; but his political capital was 
not great. He attempted to revive the Masonic 
issue in the election of 1843, with the purpose 
apparently of diverting enough Whig votes to 
give the election to the Democrats of the county, 
and thus to prove that his support was neces- 
sary to the Whig party. This manoeuvre ended 
in a disastrous failure. His faction polled four- 
teen hundred votes, but in spite of this division 
the Whig ticket was successful. This beginning 
was most unpromising ; it still further separated 
him from the mass of the Whig party, and 
more closely identified him with an extreme and 
impotent faction. Not only was he not con- 
sulted, but his opposition soon became a pass- 
port to party favor. The nomination to Con- 
gress in 1844 was given to a man who was not 
only conspicuously hostile to the Stevens faction 
in the county, but who in the state legislature 
six years before, at the time of the "buckshot 



62 THADDEUS STEVENS 

war," had repudiated Stevens's leadership, and 
voted to recognize the "Hopkins House." 

Having failed to establish himself by fight- 
ing, Stevens concluded to try the efPect of sulk- 
ing, and the latter course proved the more ef- 
fective. A situation soon arose in which his 
services were needed. Henry Clay was nomi- 
nated for the presidency in 1844, and it was 
necessary for the Whigs to put forth every 
effort to carry Pennsylvania. The Whig party 
was so strong in the county that its leaders 
could afford to indulge in the luxury of snub- 
bing Stevens there, but in the State he was 
easily the ablest man of his party, and his great 
influence could not be disregarded. His oppor- 
tunity had come. He could not only humiliate 
the local leaders, but he could pay off an old 
grudge which he had cherished toward Clay on 
account of his failure to receive a cabinet ap- 
pointment in 1841. He took to his tent. The 
leaders were compelled to capitulate, and Clay 
himself sent word to Stevens that in the event 
of his election "atonement should be made for 
past wrongs." 

Thereupon Stevens took the stump and made 
some powerful speeches for Clay. The most 
notable occasion on which he appeared was in 
Philadelphia, at a meeting which was made im- 
mensely large by reason of the attraction of 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS 63 

Mr. Webster's name. The crowd was too great 
to be within hearing distance of the central 
platform, and another stand was erected in the 
outskirts, from which Stevens spoke. Mr. 
Webster spoke too often and was too great an 
orator to be uniformly eloquent. His great re- 
sources were, for the most part, called into play 
only on great occasions. It required the lash- 
ings of the tempest to stir up the depths of his 
nature. In a speech in an ordinary campaign, 
or one in which he was giving to a rival a not 
very cordial and almost perfunctory support, 
the godlike Daniel in his latter days could out- 
nod Homer, and could cause his hearers to nod 
also. On this occasion it soon became evident 
from the applause that those who were listening 
to Stevens were having a better time than those 
who were listening to Webster, and the plat- 
form from which the former was speaking soon 
became the principal one. This by no means 
indicated that Stevens was the greater orator, 
but that his wit, his power of keen argument, 
and his fund of good stories were more attractive 
to the crowd than was the profound and somno- 
lent argument which Webster was very likely 
making on that day. 

Clay was defeated after a very close contest, 
and the aspirations of Stevens for a seat in 
the cabinet remained then and ever afterward 



64 THADDEUS STEVENS 

unsatisfied. He sought consolation again in 
his law practice, to which he gave his undivided 
attention. His qualities made him the idol of 
the young men, and a place as a student in his 
offices was greatly coveted. His prestige as a 
lawyer, as well as his good nature, may be in- 
ferred from the fact that he had as many as 
nine law students in his office at one time.^ 
His contact with clients, witnesses, and jurymen 
rapidly widened his circle of acquaintances, and 
by attending strictly to his professional work 
he was fast acquiring popularity and a more 
solid basis of political strength than would ever 
have come from the political manoeuvring in 
which he had sometimes indulged. 

A half century ago, in a large and self-cen- 
tred town, such as Lancaster was, a brilliant 
and successful laM'yer like Stevens would almost 
certainly become the popular hero. The court- 
room was a common resort for all classes, and 
in the court-room in Lancaster County Stevens 
had reigned supreme ever since the day when 
he had shown his mettle against Benjamin 
Champneys. When the time came for the 
retirement of the member of Congress who 
then represented that district, Stevens became 

^ Harris is authority for the statement that a greater num- 
ber of young men studied law with Stevens than with any other 
lawyer who had ever practiced at that bar. 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS 65 

the natural candidate. He still had the hos- 
tility of the men of his party who exercised the 
potent force which lay in the party machine. 
The leading party newspapers were against 
him. But the people had come under his spell, 
and in spite of the hostile party press and 
"machine," he was nominated as the Whig 
candidate for Congress by the narrowest of 
majorities. He showed his popularity with the 
voters by polling 9565 votes against 5464 votes 
for his Democratic antagonist. 



CHAPTER V 

CONGRESS — ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 

The 31st Congress assembled in December, 
1849, and Stevens for the first time took his 
seat as a member of the House of Representa- 
tives. He had ahnost reached the age of fifty- 
eight years, and therefore began his career in 
the House at a time of life when most men 
leave it, or have acquired from long service a 
position of leadership. It is undoubtedly true 
that an entrance into that body at an earlier 
age is more favorable to a successful career; 
but much depends upon previous occupation. 
Perhaps the most conspicuous figures in the 
history of the House of Representatives are 
John Quincy Adams and Thaddeus Stevens. 
Mr. Adams first took his seat there when more 
than sixty years of age. Both these men, 
however, had already had an experience which 
thoroughly equipped them for their work. Mr. 
Adams had served with distinction in the Sen- 
ate, as secretary of state, as president, and in 
other important posts. Stevens had gained an 



CONGRESS 67 

excellent parliamentary training in his long ser- 
vice in the Pennsylvania legislature, and his 
practice at the bar had fitted him for the per- 
sonal contests of the House of Representatives. 
Both men were thoroughly equipped upon all 
political questions, and they were also deeply 
imbued with the spirit of our institutions. They 
possessed those qualifications which a long ser- 
vice would naturally have created, and thus 
their late appearance in the House really placed 
them at no disadvantage. 

The House at that time presented somewhat 
greater opportunities to the new member than it 
does to-day. Its membership was much less nu- 
merous, the country was not nearly so populous, 
the amount of legislative business was greatly 
less, and consequently the individual member, or 
measure, stood a much better chance of recog- 
nition. The evolution of the rules had not 
reached the point where, in order to secure the 
rights of the House as a whole, it was neces- 
sary to suppress to so great an extent the privi- 
leges of the individual member. 

But a career in the House at that time, as 
now, was far from offering the fullest opportu- 
nity for statesmanship. The obvious difference 
between the American government and other 
free popular governments, of which the English 
is the best model, is that in the American 



68 THADDEUS STEVENS 

government the essential powers are scattered 
among several departments, while in the English 
government those powers are practically con- 
centrated in a single body and, essentially, in 
a single man; for so long as he can maintain 
himself in the Commons, the prime minister is 
the ruler of England. In the United States the 
President and his advisers can hold office to the 
end of the presidential term, however much they 
may differ with both houses of Congress, or 
even with the people as they may express them- 
selves at the midway election between the be- 
ginning and the end of the term. The House 
of Representatives, the only direct popular 
branch of the government, has substantially the 
function of legislation, but jointly and equally 
with the Senate, and subject to the veto power 
of the President, which it requires a two -thirds 
vote of both legislative branches to overcome. 
The dramatic contests which mark parliamen- 
tary history elsewhere are of course not witnessed 
with us. An important measure may fail in 
the House, but no government falls in conse- 
quence; it may pass in the House and be de- 
feated in the Senate, or it may pass both bodies 
to meet an executive veto; but none the less 
the steady routine of official existence will con- 
tinue until the close of the term fixed by the 
Constitution. This condition of the Constitu- 



CONGRESS 69 

tion doubtless conduces to conservatism in legis- 
lation, but it certainly does not conduce to the 
development of the individual statesman. An 
American statesman gets his power in install- 
ments. In his early life he may try his hand 
at legislation in the House ; later he may appear 
in the Senate, and in addition to legislative 
work of practically the same character, he may 
participate, in secret session, in the performance 
of those executive functions, chiefly relating to 
the filling of offices, which the Senate possesses ; 
and still later he may discharge the duties of 
an executive officer as a member of the cabinet. 
In the course of a long official career, therefore, 
he will at different times very likely perform 
substantially the same duties as a member of 
the British government performs at one and the 
same time. 

The House in which Stevens took his seat 
contained many men who were then well known, 
or who afterwards became famous. In the dele- 
gations from the New England States were El- 
bridge Gerry of Maine, Harry Hibbard of New 
Hampshire, and Charles Allen, George Ash- 
mun, Horace Mann, and Robert C. Winthrop, 
of Massachusetts. Among the colleagues of 
Stevens from Pennsylvania was David Wilmot, 
the author of the famous proviso. Preston King- 
came from New York; Georgia sent Howell 



70 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Cobb, Alexander H. Stephens, and Robert 
Toombs. Obio had among her members Joshua 
R. Giddings and Robert C. Schenck; while 
j among the Tennessee representatives were Isham 
j G. Harris, who was then entering upon an offi- 
/ cial career destined to last for nearly half a 
century, and Andrew Johnson, to whose im- 
mortality Stevens contributed so greatly in the 
impeachment proceedings. The Whigs and 
Democrats were almost equal in number, and 
neither party was able to control the House. 
The Free-soilers and the radical Whigs held the 
balance of power. 

While the devoted band of Free-soilers and the 
extreme Whig members, who soon ranged them- 
selves behind Stevens as their natural leader, 
were too insignificant in number to elect the 
speaker, they were yet sufficiently strong to 
prevent either of the great parties from securing 
a majority. The Whig candidate was Robert C. 
Winthrop, who had been speaker of the preced- 
ing House, and was perhaps the most polished 
orator in that body. The Democratic candidate 
was Howell Cobb, an able man, but of a radi- 
cally different political school. For three weeks 
the House fruitlessly balloted for the candi- 
dates. The contest was exciting and protracted 
beyond anything then known in the history of 
the House of Representatives. Although the 



CONGRESS 71 

members had not been sworn in, and the only 
business in order was to elect a speaker, or to 
adjourn from day to day, the roll-call was re- 
peatedly interrupted by threatening and inflam- 
matory speeches. 

Stevens soon appeared as a candidate, and 
the vote for him included all the Free-soil mem- 
bers and an equal number of the Whigs. This 
support was most respectable in character, and 
it was no mean tribute to him that he should 
receive it upon his first appearance in the House 
of Representatives. It was impossible for any 
candidate to obtain a majority. At length, by 
general agreement, it was decided that a plu- 
rality should elect, as the only solution of the 
difficulty. The choice fell to Cobb, who was 
only three votes ahead of Winthrop, but lacked 
ten votes of a majority. 

The Free-soil members agreed with Win- 
throp upon many political questions. They 
disagreed with Cobb upon nearly all. It was 
in their power to determine which should be 
the speaker. But it illustrates the intensity of 
the division, which then first appeared in the 
Whig party, and finally led to its dissolution, 
that its extreme members preferred an uncom- 
promising enemy to a moderate friend. Their 
object, however, lay farther in the future than 
the election of the speaker of that House. They 



72 THADDEUS STEVENS 

aimed to force their party to take a more ag- 
gressive stand against slavery, or, failing in 
that, to disrupt it entirely, and organize a new 
party upon its ruins. 

The slave question had reached a most acute 
stage, and overshadowed all other questions. 
Perhaps no Congress had met since the forma- 
tion of the Constitution under such great 
excitement upon any domestic issue. The 
Mexican war had just been carried to a success- 
ful conclusion. Its principal result was the ac- 
quisition of a vast tract of territory, and, since 
the war had been emphatically a Southern war, 
the Southern leaders fondly hoped that the new 
domain would be carved into slave States, and 
thereby add to the strength of their peculiar 
"institution." Even if all this territory were 
not opened to slavery, the extension of the line of 
the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean 
would greatly augment the power of slavery. 

Fortune, however, favored the cause of free- 
dom. The new territory had scarcely been 
ceded to the Union when the discovery of gold 
in California set in motion a tide of immigra- 
tion which, considering its volume, the energy 
of its motion, the distance it had to travel and 
the dangers it must overcome, may fairly be said 
to stand alone in the history of the transmigra- 
tions of the Ansrlo-Saxon race. Thousands of 



CONGRESS 73 

immigrants twice crossed the equator, and 
reached their destination over fifteen thousand 
miles of sea. Others took the shorter but 
scarcely less hazardous route by the Isthmus of 
Panama. Those who went overland dared the 
utmost dangers and privations, and were fortu- 
nate if they escaped slaughter at the hands of 
the savage. 

In an incredibly short time California had a 
sujfficient population to form a State, — a popu- 
lation that was liberty -loving, hardy, and brave. 
They were not the men to tolerate slavery. The 
territory itself, wonderful in its beauty, in its 
fertility, in its climate, and its wealth of re- 
sources, was fashioned to be the home of free- 
dom. The people of California promptly 
adopted a free constitution and asked admission 
to the Union as a free State. The most that 
Congress could do was to refuse admission. 
The Democratic doctrine of popular sovereignty 
would not admit of an attempt to establish 
slavery there by national law, and, even if the 
attempt had been made, it would have been the 
most empty possible enactment, and one which 
never could have been put in force. 

Nor was the question of slavery in the new 
territory the only irritating form which the 
slave problem assumed. The return of "per- 
sons held to service or labor," which was the 



74 THADDEUS STEVENS 

euphemistic term by which the framers of the 
Constitution avoided the use of the word "slave " 
in that instrument, had brought the wickedness 
of the "institution" home to the people of the 
free States. They resented the apparent com- 
plicity in the evil, which was involved in their 
sending slaves back to bondage. As a result 
the laws upon the subject were very feebly en- 
forced. The people of the South believed that 
the Constitution was being violated, and many 
of their leaders threatened the dissolution of the 
Union unless an effective law were enacted and 
enforced for the return of runaway slaves. The 
slave problem, therefore, appeared in some form 
or other in all the questions pressing for solu- 
tion, and Stevens at the very threshold of his 
national career was compelled to deal with the 
question which had more intensely interested 
him than any other. 

The situation demanded the statesmanship of 
Mr. Clay, who has had no superior in our his- 
tory in ability to adjust, at least temporarily, 
dangerous complications, and it was not an un- 
fortunate circumstance that with this Congress 
he again entered the Senate, from which he had 
retired. He was profoundly impressed with 
the gravity of the crisis, and sincerely and pa- 
triotically desired to avert the perils with which 
it was fraught. He introduced a series of reso- 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 75 

lutions covering the whole field, the important 
features of which were the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a free State, more effectual provisions 
for the return of fugitive slaves, territorial gov- 
ernments for New Mexico and Utah without 
any provision upon the question of slavery, 
payment of the debt of Texas, and the adjust- 
ment of her boundary, and the abolition of the 
slave trade in the District of Columbia. 

Naturally enough this programme encoun- 
tered hostility upon both sides. The provisions 
for the return of slaves and the establishment 
of the territorial governments without a prohi- 
bition of slavery were especially distasteful to 
the Whigs. The admission of California as a 
free State was equally distasteful to the Demo- 
crats. It is true that in all compromises be- 
tween two parties something must be conceded 
upon both sides, but the extreme Whigs, of 
whom Stevens was the leader, were determined 
in this business not to yield anything. 

He did not wait for the proposed compromise 
to reach the House, but on February 20, 1850, 
made a speech in which he violently attacked 
the proposition for the return of fugitive slaves, 
and broadly discussed the slavery question. 
This was his first set speech in Congress upon 
the subject, and he proposed to speak his mind 
frankly. "We can say anything," he said, 



76 THADDEUS STEVENS 

"within these walls or beyond them with impu- 
nity unless it be to agitate in favor of human 
liberty — that is aggression," While he an- 
nounced his "unchangeable hostility " to slavery 
"in every form and in every place," he declared 
that he felt bound by the Constitutional provi- 
sions. Some of those compromises he greatly 
disliked, and if they were still open he would 
never consent to them, but he was precluded 
from objecting. It was a matter of regret that 
Congress had no power over slavery in the 
States, and if it had, he would, regardless of 
all threats, support "some just, safe, and cer- 
tain means for its final extinction." He then 
proceeded to discuss the wisdom of slavery in 
a style which it is impossible to condense or 
abridge without injuring the argument. 

He first considered the question "in the low 
light of political economy." That nation is the 
most prosperous which has the most industri- 
ous and largest producing classes. "Those who 
merely consume the fruits of the earth add no- 
thing to the strength or the wealth of a nation." 
Slave countries cannot have a large number of 
industrious free men. " When the lash is the 
only stimulant the spirit of man revolts from 
labor." Never can such countries have a body 
of small proprietors of the soil. The poor white 
laborers are the scorn of the slave himself, and 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 77 

are ranked with him. The soil occupied by- 
slavery, he declared, is much less productive 
than a similar soil occupied by free men, be- 
cause negligence and improvidence follow in its 
train. He illustrated his argument by a refer- 
ence to Virginia. 

"She has a delightful climate; a soil natu- 
rally fertile. She is intersected, as was well said 
by the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bayly], 
by the noblest rivers. Her hills and moun- 
tains are filled with rich minerals and covered 
with valuable timber. She has the finest water, 
I believe, in the nation, in the very heart of her 
State; and her harbors are among the best in 
the world. At the time of the adoption of the 
Constitution she was the most powerful State — 
her population was double that of New York. 
It was the boast of her statesmen that she was j 
'prima inter pares.' What is she now? The ^ 
population of New York is more than double — | 
I think the next census will show nearly treble 1 
hers. Her land, cultivated by unwilling hands, | 
is unproductive. Travel through the adjoining I 
States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and you will 
see that the land produces more than double as 
much as the same kind of land in Virginia. In 
the free States new towns are everywhere spring- 
ing up and thriving; the land is becoming more 
productive; smiling habitations are within hail 



78 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of each other ; the whole country is dotted with 
schoolhouses and churches almost within sight 
of each other; and, except under peculiar cir- 
cumstances, their manufactures and mechanic 
arts are furnishing lucrative employment to all 
their people; and their population is steadily 
and rapidly increasing. Turn again to Virginia. 
There is scarcely a new town, except at one or 
two points, within her whole borders. Her 
ancient villages wear the appearance of mourn- 
ful decay. Her minerals and timber are un- 
wrought. Her noble water-power is but partially 
occupied. Her fine harbors are without ships, 
except from other ports ; and her seaport towns 
are without commerce and falling to decay. 
Ask yourself the cause, sir, and I will abide 
the answer." 

He thought it was vital to confine slavery to 
the States in which it then existed, because that 
course would bring the States themselves to its 
gradual abolition. Permit the disease to spread, 
and " it will render the whole body leprous and 
loathsome." He again emphasized his cure for 
slavery, which long dwelt in the memory of 
Southern statesmen. "Surround it by a cordon 
of freemen, so that it cannot spread, and in less 
than twenty-five years every slave-holding State 
in this Union will have on its statute books a law 
for the gradual and final extinction of slavery." 



I 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 79 

This speech not only commanded the admi- 
ration of his friends and justified the votes they 
had given him for speaker, but it achieved the 
success of drawing upon him the fire of the op- 
position. It had strength and directness. It 
clearly expressed great ideas, which were not 
dressed up and concealed in any frippery of 
labored rhetoric. His trenchant power of argu- 
ment, his courage, the force of his compact elo- 
quence not merely established his position in 
the House, but they attracted the attention of 
the country. The proceedings of the House 
which most intensely interested Stevens were 
those relating to the slavery question. He was 
a member of the Judiciary Committee, and 
gave much of his time to the work of a tech- 
nical and legal character which came before that 
committee ; but his heart was with the slave, and 
his most elaborate speeches were made in his 
behaK. 

When the California question came before 
the House, he seized the opportunity to state 
more fully his position with regard to slavery 
in the territories as well as to make more em- 
phatic, if possible, his hostility to slavery every- 
where. On June 10, 1850, he delivered another 
philippic, which was even more forcible and 
uncompromising than his February speech. He 
declared that in his opinion, so far as the 



80 THADDEUS STEVENS 

constitutional power to admit new States was 
concerned, Congress only had power to admit 
such States as were formed out of territory pre- 
viously belonging to the nation. He again ex- 
pressed his unwillingness to violate any of the 
provisions of the Constitution, but displayed a 
good deal of legal ingenuity in the manner in 
which he construed some of those provisions. 
Aside from what he termed "the principle of 
eternal right," he would never give his consent 
to the admission of another slave State, unless 
bound to do so by some compact, "on account 
of the injustice of slave representation." He 
would not vote to give five slaves and their mas- 
ter the same voting power as four white men. 
From the eulogies which had been pronounced 
upon slavery, he would infer that the institution 
was a blessing politically and morally. Compari- 
sons had been made between slaves and free 
working men much to the advantage of the 
slave. Instances had been cited "where the 
slave, after having tried his freedom, had volun- 
tarily returned to resume his yoke." If this 
were true, he could not see any reason for be- 
ing apprehensive as to the future of slavery. 
Slaveholders would never lack bondsmen. 
"Their slaves would remain, and many free 
men would seek admission into this happy con- 
dition." The North would not complain if they 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 81 

would establish in the South " abolition societies 
to abolish freedom." 

He then referred to some of the glowing pic- 
tures that had been painted of slavery. "If 
these Southern gentlemen and their Northern 
sycophants are sincere and correct, then I must 
admit that they have just cause of complaint — 
the only real aggression which the North ever 
inflicted on them. For it cannot be denied 
that for two centuries the North has mainly 
contributed to secure to a particular race the 
whole advantages of this blissful condition of 
slavery; and, at the same time, has imposed 
upon the white race the cares, the troubles, the 
lean anxieties of freedom. This is a monopoly 
inconsistent with republican principles, and 
should be corrected. If it will save the Union, 
let these gentlemen introduce a ' compromise ' 
by which these races may change conditions ; by 
which the oppressed master may slide into that 
happy state where he can stretch his limbs on 
the sunny ground without fear of deranging his 
toilet; when he will have no care for to-mor- 
row; another will be bound to find him meat 
and drink, food and raiment, and provide for 
the infirmities and helplessness of old age. Im- 
pose, if you please, upon the other race, as a 
compensation for their former blessings, all 
those cares, and duties, and anxieties. . . . 



82 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Homer informs us that the moment a man be- 
comes a slave, he loses half the man ; and a few 
short years of apprenticeship will exj)unge all 
the rest, excejDt the faint glimmerings of an 
immortal soul. Take your stand, therefore, 
courageously in the swamp, spade and mattock 
in hand, and, uncovered and half naked, toil 
beneath the broiling sun. Go home to your 
hut at night, and sleep on the bare ground, and 
go forth in the morning unwashed to your daily 
labor, and a few short years, or a generation 
or two at the most, will give you a color that 
will pass muster in the most fastidious and pious 
slave market in Christendom." There were de- 
grees in slavery, and having quoted Homer to 
illustrate its evils, he now cited a modern poet. 
"Dante, by actual observation, makes hell con- 
sist of nine circles, the punishments of each in- 
creasing in intensity over the preceding. Those 
doomed to the first circle are much less afflicted 
than those in the ninth, where are tortured Lu- 
cifer and Judas Iscariot — and, I trust, in the 
next edition will be added the Traitors to Lib- 
erty. But notwithstanding this difference in 
degree, all from the first circle to the ninth, 
inclusive, is hell — cruel, desolate, abhorred, 
horrible hell." He then recurred to the fugitive 
slave law. The owner of the slave had as effec- 
tive remedies to recover his property as the 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 83 

owner of a horse. After citing the provisions 
of the law, he said : " Is not this sufficient ? It 
is all the right which he would have if he claims 
pro^jerty in a horse, or other property, which he 
might allege had strayed over the line. Why 
should he have any greater right when he claims 
property in man? Is a man of so much less 
value than a horse, that he should be deprived of 
the ordinary protection of the law? " He then 
drew a picture which was a most familiar one in 
his experience. "If an inhabitant of a free 
State sees a wretched fugitive, who, he learns, 
is fleeing from bondage, and gives him a meal 
of victuals to keep him from starving, and 
allows him to sleep in his outhouse, although his 
master is not in pursuit of him, he is liable to 
the penalty of five hundred dollars. A judge in 
Pennsylvania lately held that a worthy citizen 
of Indiana County incurred such penalty by 
giving a cup of water and a crust of bread to 
a famishing man, whom he knew to be fleeing 
from bondage. A slave family escaped from 
Maryland, went into Cumberland County, Penn- 
sylvania, and obtained the reluctant consent of 
a worthy farmer to sleep in his hayloft. Their 
owner did not pursue them for a week after- 
wards. It was held by a state court that the 
farmer was liable for the full value of the 
slaves, besides the $500 penalty, and a jury 



84 THADDEUS STEVENS 

returned a verdict for $2000 and costs. Such 
are some of the provisions of the law of 1793, 
now in force, which these great expounders of 
constitutional freedom hold to be too mild." 

He commented with a good deal of asperity 
upon the course of Webster and Clay. The 
sons of the South were faithful, even though 
its cause was that of human bondage. "But 
the North, the poor, timid, mercenary, drivel- 
ing North, has no such united defenders of 
her cause, although it is the cause of human 
liberty. Even her own great men have turned 
her accusers." He declared his unyielding 
opposition to the fugitive slave law. " The 
distinguished senator from Kentucky [Clay] 
wishes further to make it the duty of all by- 
standers to aid in the capture of fugitives; to 
join the chase and run down the prey. This is 
asking more than my constituents will ever 
grant. They will strictly abide by the Consti- 
tution. The slaveholder may pursue his slave 
among them with his own foreign myrmidons, 
unmolested, except by their frowning scorn. But 
no law that tyranny can pass will ever induce 
them to join the hue and cry after the trembling 
wretch who has escaped from unjust bondage. 
Their fair land, made by nature and their own 
honest toil as fertile and as lovely as the Vale 
of Tempe, shall never become the hunting- 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 85 

ground on which the bloodhounds of slavery- 
shall course their prey and command them to 
join the hunt." 

The speeches of Stevens upon slavery in the 
thirty-first Congress were more rhetorical than 
those in his later style, and the faculty of wit 
which he could so successfully employ to pro- 
voke laughter and to promote a kindly feeling, 
displayed itself in these speeches in a biting, 
destructive sarcasm which grew out of his ine- 
radicable hatred of slavery. They will, on the 
whole, bear comparison with any that were 
made during the entire history of the agitation. 

It should be noted, also, that he did not 
speak one way and vote another. Clay's "om- 
nibus bill," which contained the five features 
of the compromise, was defeated in the Senate, 
and having, in consequence, been resolved into 
its original elements, it came over to the House 
in the shape of five distinct bills. Stevens 
voted to the last against the fugitive slave law 
and the establishment of the territories with- 
out a prohibition against slavery. Enough 
of the Whigs, however, were willing to join 
with the Democrats to pass the Democratic 
features of the compromise, and enough Demo- 
crats united with the Whigs to pass the Whig 
features; thus ultimately the propositions of 
Clay all became embodied in law. The crisis 



86 THADDEUS STEVENS 

was, perhaps, the most grave that had arisen 
under our government, and it was due in great 
measure to the statesmanship of Clay and the 
supjjort he received from Webster that it was 
peacefully passed. The settlement, however, 
was only for the moment, and it was soon 
brushed aside by the impetuous slave leaders in 
their aggressive career, which finally culminated 
in war. 

Stevens was reelected to the thirty-second 
Congress. It assembled under much more 
peaceful conditions than had attended the meet- 
ing of its predecessor. The House organized 
without difficulty, and on the ballot for speaker 
Stevens received sixteen votes. Among his 
supporters were Charles Allen, Joshua E. Gid- 
dings, and Horace Mann. The compromise 
measures of Clay had temporarily effected a 
truce, and the great controversy in our poli- 
tics was at that time dormant. Since the sla- 
very agitation was suspended, Stevens had to 
be contented with the tariff, and his most elabo- 
rate speech in the thirty-second Congress was 
upon that subject. The speech was obviously 
intended for campaign purposes, and was made 
upon the Indian appropriation bill, under the 
rule or custom which makes all sorts of obser- 
vations usual in a debate upon an appropriation 
bill except such as are pertinent to the bill. 



ANTI-SLAVERY SPEECHES 87 

He felt called upon at the outset to express sor- 
row at the " unhappy difficulties and dissensions 
which had destroyed the Democratic party," — 
a statement which was not strongly sustained by 
the election which soon followed, in which the 
Democratic candidate got nearly all the votes. 
His argument for the protective policy was an 
able one, but it dealt largely with the duties on 
iron, and was apparently directed to the voters 
of his own State. 

One other extended speech he made in this 
Congress, and this time nominally upon the 
army appropriation bill. This also was a cam- 
paign speech, touching upon all the leading 
issues of the presidential election, containing 
ridicule of Mr. Pierce and praise of General 
Scott. He declared that Pierce could be relied 
upon to extend slavery and to aid in securing 
the admission of new slave States, notwith- 
standing that a speech which he was believed 
to have made had squinted in the opposite 
direction : — "If he ever did utter such senti- 
ments — if he ever did fall into the path of 
rectitude, it was momentary and accidental, 
and for which he is not to be held responsible 
(renewed laughter) — for all his votes in Con- 
gress and all his public acts everywhere pro- 
claim him the champion of slavery. "^ On the 

^ Globe, 32d Congress, 1st session, Appendix, p. 1029. 



88 THADDEUS STEVENS 

other hand, he alleged that Scott had nearly all 
the virtues that could be desired in a presidential 
candidate ; that he was " deeply versed in muni- 
cipal and international law; " that he was as 
brave as Caesar, "with no particle of his ambi- 
tion; " that he believed it to be the moral duty 
of slave States voluntarily to abolish slavery, — 
and a good deal more in the same vein. In spite 
of these ideal qualities as a candidate, Scott was 
disastrously beaten. The people were getting 
weary of the slavery agitation, and as the De- 
mocratic platform pledged the party to stand by 
the compromise of 1850, the nation concluded 
to take that party at its word. The signal De- 
mocratic triumph, however, was speedily fol- 
lowed by a repudiation of the compromise and 
a radical reopening of the whole controversy. 
But in the mean time Stevens had retired, as 
he thought permanently, to private life, from 
which he did not again emerge until his coun- 
trymen, aroused to fever heat, were about to 
decide the question amid the clash of arms, and 
he was to do the work which was destined to 
make his name immortal. 



CHAPTER VI 

RESUMES LAW PRACTICE — AGAIN RETURNED 
TO CONGRESS — CAMPAIGN OF I860 

Stevens retired from Congress in March, 
1853, and it is probable that he did not expect 
to hold office again. In the very last hour of 
the session he arose to a personal explanation, 
for the purpose of disavowing any intention of 
disparaging a colleague in a speech he had 
made. "It is more than probable," he said, 
"that hereafter I shall never meet any member, 
here or elsewhere, officially, and I desire to 
part with no unfriendly feeling towards any of 
them." He returned to Lancaster, and resumed 
the practice of his profession with increased 
ardor, although he had not entirely relinquished 
it during his service in the House. During the 
latter part of 1851 he had appeared as counsel 
in the Hanway treason case, which was heard 
in the United States court in Philadelphia, and 
was probably the first important case, in Penn- 
sylvania at least, arising under the fup-'.tive 
slave law of 1850, which Stevens had so vigor- 
ously opposed in Congress. 



90 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Certain slaves of Edward Gorsuch, of Mary- 
land, had escaped into Pennsylvania, and were 
living in Lancaster County with other members 
of their race. The owner proceeded under the 
fugitive slave act, and, having obtained war- 
rants for the fugitives, he went with the United 
States marshal to point them out. The negroes 
had secured arms, and energetically resisted the 
officer in his attempt to serve the process. Dur- 
ing the encounter Gorsuch was killed and two 
other members of the marshal's party were 
wounded. Two white men, of whom Castner 
Hanway was one, and several others, were 
arrested and tried on the charge of treason. It 
is rare that any criminal proceeding has ever so 
thoroughly aroused the country. The fugitive 
slave act had only recently been passed amid 
intense popular excitement. While an officer 
of the law was proceeding according to its terms, 
the Southern slave-owner had been shot down by 
negroes. Not unnaturally the South was greatly 
exasperated, and a numerous party in the North 
supported the demand for the enforcement of the 
law. On the other hand, there were not a few 
who believed that a man, who was not accused 
of crime, should have a right to fight for his 
freedom, any statute or even the Constitution 
itself to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The trial closely held public attention during 



RESUMES LAW PRACTICE 91 

the fifteen days that it lasted, and was memo- 
rable on account of the brilliant display of legal 
talent which it called forth. It appears to be 
conceded upon all sides that Stevens was the 
inspiration of the defense, and that its lines 
were laid down by him. But on account of his 
extreme anti-slavery views it was thought best 
to assign the part of leading counsel to a Demo- 
cratic lawyer, and an extremely able one was 
found in John M. Read, who afterwards became 
chief justice of Pennsylvania. The trial ended 
in a verdict of acquittal, which was based upon 
the instruction of the court that the transaction 
did not rise to "the dignity of treason or the 
levying of war."^ 

The law practice of Stevens must have been 
very lucrative during the interval between the 
two periods of his congressional service. He 
had the choice of cases not merely in Lancaster, 
but also in the adjacent counties. He enjoyed 
a reputation second to that of no lawyer in 
Pennsylvania, and according to the best judges 
this reputation was thoroughly deserved. Colo- 
nel Alexander K. McClure, who was practichig 
law in a neighboring county during a portion of 
this period, knew Stevens intimately. After 
a long and honorable career in Pennsylvania, 

1 See McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Times, pp. 270, 271 ; 
Harris, Political Conflict in America, pp. 146-154. 



92 THADDEUS STEVENS 

in public life and as a journalist, which brought 
him into close relations with the leading men 
of his State, no man is more competent to place 
an estimate upon the position of Stevens at the 
bar, and I am fortunate in being able to present 
his opinion, which I shall do in his own words. 
"I had some experience with Mr. Stevens at 
the bar from 1856 until ten years later, as he 
attended all the Chambersburg courts and tried 
one side of all the most important cases. I was 
then a member of the Chambersburg bar, and 
was Mr. Stevens's attorney in that county where 
he had his large iron works. I have seen and 
heard all the leading men of the Pennsylvania 
bar who were contemporary with Mr. Stevens, 
and I regarded him as the most accomplished 
all round lawyer we had in the State. He was 
thoroughly grounded in the fundamental princi- 
ples of the law; was thoroughly familiar with 
cases at home and abroad ; was perfect in prac- 
tice; elicited testimony from witnesses better 
than any man I have ever heard in court, and 
was one of the most skillful advocates that ever 
addressed a jury. I was engaged with older 
counsel against Mr. Stevens in the first import- 
ant case I ever tried after my admission to the 
bar, and felt much embarrassed in having so 
accomplished an antagonist ; but he was one of 
the most courteous men in the trial of a case, 



RESUMES LAW PRACTICE 93 

whether engaged with or against him, and es- 
pecially to the younger members of the bar, that 
I have ever met. His invective, that was always 
most wisely employed in the trial of cases, was 
terrible, and the member of the bar who under- 
took to transcend the line of propriety was cer- 
tain to pay dearly for his audacity; but he was 
thoroughly manly and generous to all who mer- 
ited such treatment. I have known many of 
our great lawyers who were great advocates or 
great in the skillful direction of cases, but he is 
the only man I can recall who was eminent in 
all the attributes of a great lawyer." ^ 

For a short time after his retirement from 
Congress, Stevens appears to have taken little 
part in politics. He did not favor the compro- 
mising tendencies of the Whig party. His na- 
ture demanded something more radical, and he 
probably regarded with a grim sort of satisfac- 
tion the disintegration of the political organiza- 
tion of which he had never been a very loyal 
member, and which he had vainly endeavored 
to make less conservative, first upon the question 
of Masonry and afterwards upon slavery. In 
1855 he attended a meeting in Lancaster, which 
was held for the purpose of establishing the 
Republican party in that county. The move- 
ment was not regarded with favor, and less than 
1 MS. letter, November 16, 1898. 



94 THADDEUS STEVENS 

twenty persons attended the meeting. The fol- 
lowing year he was chosen a delegate to the 
Kepublican national convention, which nomi- 
nated Fremont for the presidency. The forma- 
tion of this new party, pledged to assume a 
more aggressive stand against the extension of 
slavery, rekindled his ambition to enter politics, 
and he reappeared in the national House as a 
-i-epresentative from Lancaster at the December 
session of 1859. 

Although he was then nearly sixty -eight years 
old, that which made his career memorable and 
most distinguished was still before him. He 
had doubtless shown conspicuous ability in every 
capacity in which he had thus far been called 
upon to act. He had never encountered his in- 
tellectual superior, either at the bar or in the 
Pennsylvania legislature, oi* in his four years' 
service in the national House. His work in 
establishing free schools in Pennsylvania was of 
transcendent importance, but it would probably 
not have extended his fame beyond the limits 
of his State. He had made one or two anti- 
slavery speeches in Congress, which deserve to 
take high rank in the literature of the crusade 
against slavery, and which are still gratefully 
remembered by the few survivors of the heroic 
band of those who stood with him in that great 
struggle. But there was probably never any 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 95 

other political cause in which so much elo- 
quence, good and bad, had been expended as 
in the anti-slavery agitation, and his speeches, 
standing alone, would not have caused him to 
be longer remembered than some of the speeches 
which he had made at the bar in behalf of fugi- 
tive slaves. Although he had shown himself 
equal to every part he had been called upon to 
play, yet his great opportunity had not come, 
and if he had died at sixty-eight his name 
would hardly have been mentioned in the his^ 
tory of his country. 

It was evident that he himself had no premo- 
nition of the work before him, and that he felt 
conscious of the infirmities of age. Something 
like an apology for his reappearance upon the 
scene is found in a short eulogy which he deliv- 
ered upon one of his colleagues, John Schwarz, 
soon after his return to Congress. He said that 
the loss of his colleague would perhaps have 
been greater if he had been cut off in the prime 
of manhood. "There are but few in this 
House," he added, "who with me can appre- 
ciate the force of that suggestion. It were per- 
haps more graceful for those who are conscious 
that age or infirmity has impaired their mental 
and physical powers, who find by repeated trials 
that they can no longer bend the bow of Ulysses, 
to retire, and lay down the discus which they 



96 THADDEUS STEVENS 

have not the strength to hurl." How he might 
at an earlier age have done the work that was 
his to do can only be conjectured, but his su- 
preme opportunity came to him in that far time 
when most men cease from their labors, and he 
then proved that he still retained enough of his 
youthful strength to take easily the lead in mo- 
mentous events with which only a great man 
can deal, and for which a real leader is chosen, 
not because men consciously want him, but be- 
cause the events seek him out by a process of 
natural selection. 

By a curious coincidence the beginning of the 
second period of his congressional service was 
marked by a contest over the organization of 
the House not less exciting and even more pro- 
tracted than that which had occurred when he 
first became a member of that body. As a 
result of its aggressive policy the new Repub- 
lican party had elected a greater number of 
the members of the House than the Democrats 
had succeeded in electing. The Whig party had 
almost entirely disappeared, and its name was 
perpetuated in the House by only a single mem- 
ber. The Republicans, however, could not com- 
mand the majority of all the members, which 
was necessary to a control, and the balance of 
power was held by the twenty-six members 
of the "American" party, so called, who were 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 97 

somewhat less radical than the Republicans upon 
the question of slavery, and were chosen, not 
so much upon a platform for the restriction 
of immigration, as from hostility to foreign- 
born citizens. 

At the outset the Republican strength was 
divided on the vote for speaker between John 
Sherman and Galusha A. Grow, the former of 
whom has only recently retired from politics 
after a highly useful and illustrious career, and 
the latter is still serving in the House of Repre- 
sentatives with undiminished ability and with 
all the enthusiasm and patriotic zeal which 
characterized him as speaker during the presi- 
dency of Lincoln. The Republican vote was 
very soon consolidated upon Sherman; but al- 
though he received support from the "Ameri- 
can " party he never quite secured the necessary 
majority. 

The proceedings were scarcely less turbulent 
than when, in the thirty-first Congress, Mr. 
Toombs had so easily outshone all competitors 
in violence and intemperate threats. The roll- 
call was interrupted by long speeches, many of 
them apparently made with the purpose of con- 
suming time, and some doubtless to intimidate 
Northern members with the well-worn threat of 
dissolving the Union. Stevens had been through 
a similar contest, and he attempted to check 



98 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the flow of incendiary oratory by the point of 
order, that the only business the House could 
transact under the Constitution was to vote for 
speaker or adjourn. Well founded as his point 
of order certainly was, he was not conspicuously 
fitted to fill the role of peacemaker, if indeed 
he had taken the floor with so serious a purpose. 
He grimly observed, amid Republican laughter, 
that he did not blame Southern members "for 
using this threat of rending God's creation from 
the turret to the foundation." They had uttered 
the menace a great many times, and a great 
many times they had found "weak and timid 
tremblers in the North who had been affected 
by it." He then congratulated them upon their 
ability to maintain grave countenances while 
again attempting the same play. 

This outpouring of vinegar instead of oil 
produced its natural and probably its intended 
result, and provoked interruptions and threats, 
the angry sincerity of which could not be 
doubted. "That is right," said Stevens, "that 
is the way they frightened us before." This 
irritating response added new fury to the storm, 
and the members rushed together in the centre 
of the hall amid the greatest excitement and 
disorder. The clerk declared that he was pow- 
erless to enforce order. Stevens relieved the 
strain and displayed his power over the members 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 99 

by saying blandly : " This is a mere momentary 
breeze, sir, nothing else." 

The contest continued for more than eight 
weeks. Stevens occasionally took a hand and 
rekindled the fury of his antagonists, when the 
proceedings lapsed into dullness ; and sometimes, 
when the danger point was near, he averted the 
trouble by some happy remark which restored 
good humor. Mr. Anderson, a Democratic 
member from Missouri, proposed that all parties 
opposed to the Republican party should get to- 
gether in a caucus and agree on an organization 
of the House, — a naive suggestion which, if 
followed, would have given his party the control 
of the House. The gentleman, said Stevens, 
amid great laughter, had proposed "that happy 
family described in the 'Prairie ' where the prai- 
rie woK, the owl, and the rattlesnake live in one 
hole." 

One day, late in the contest, Stevens arose 
with a very serious countenance, and said that 
a vote of his had been criticised in a newspaper, 
and he desired to make an explanation. He 
thereupon sent to the clerk's desk a paper, 
which he requested should be read. The clerk, 
after looking blankly at the paper, replied, amid 
the usual laughter that almost invariably at- 
tended the appearance of Stevens during that 
contest: "The paper is printed in German, and 



100 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the clerk cannot read it." "Then," said Ste- 
vens, "I postpone my remarks until the clerk 
can read it." 

There was certainly something in his ready 
and unfailing wit and in his manner that cap- 
tured the House. The official record of the 
little speeches which he interjected into the pro- 
ceedings are frequently punctured with the re- 
port of "laughter." The man himself and the 
circumstances of the moment formed a great 
part of what he said, and the effect cannot be 
reproduced by a repetition. There could hardly 
be a better tribute to his wit. It was never- 
failing, always sufficient, and it played like 
heat lightning over the proceedings of the 
House; yet sometimes it would show the force 
of the bolt that kills. "I never saw any one 
who was his match," said one who was a mem- 
ber of the House during the entire period of his 
second term of service, and who served with 
great distinction in both houses of Congress. 
" There was usually that quality in his wit which 
compelled you to join in the laugh he raised, 
even when it was at your own expense." ^ 

It was, however, the exception for good humor 
to prevail during this long-drawn-out struggle 
for the speakership. The contest for that office 
was the occasion, but it was far from being the 

1 Hon. Henry L. Dawes. 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 101 

cause, of those heated exhibitions of partisan- 
ship and violations of parliamentary decorum 
which, during two months, signalized the pro- 
ceedings of the House of Representatives. The 
great contest over slavery had reached a climax. 
The "irrepressible conflict" with freedom was 
rapidly passing outside the domain of laws 
and compromises and taking the inevitable form 
of an appeal to arms. The crisis of 1850 had 
been safely passed by a compromise which was 
distasteful to both parties, as all real compro- 
mises are apt to be, but which a majority of the 
people of the country were doubtless willing to 
accept. 

President Pierce, who had been elected by 
an overwhelming vote, had declared in his first 
annual message to Congress that the settlement 
had resulted in giving "renewed vigor to our 
institutions and restored a sense of peace and 
security," and he promised that the repose which 
had resulted from the compromise should not 
be disturbed if he had the power to prevent it. 
The convention which nominated him had given 
a pledge against reopening the slavery question. 
The leaders of the aggressive slavery party, 
however, immediately proceeded to redeem this 
pledge by the repeal of the "Missouri Compro- 
mise," which had been in force for a generation, 
and which the people of the North regarded 



102 THADDEUS STEVENS 

only less reverently than the Constitution itself. 
This act of bad faith, followed as it was by the 
Dred Scott decision, the criminally conducted 
attempt to force the new State of Kansas to 
accept slavery, and the confident beginning of 
an agitation to wipe out the laws against the 
slave trade, aroused the spirit of the North and 
made a peaceful adjustment of the controversy 
well-nigh impossible. Of what use were com- 
promises, when the most solemn ones were en- 
tered into only to be deliberately broken? The 
middle ground for conservatives to stand upon 
was each day growing narrower, and the people 
of the country were rapidly dividing into two 
parties, of which the advocates of slavery formed 
the one, and the friends of freedom the other. 

It was in this condition of affairs that the 
thirty-sixth Congress assembled. It was hardly 
to be expected that all the niceties of parlia- 
mentary decorum should be observed when, 
after a long controversy, the passions of men 
had at last been kindled to the point of fighting. 
Stevens, who had nothing of compromise in his 
nature, found himself at last in accord with the 
prevailing popular temper, which demanded 
something radical instead of craving sedatives. 
He was enveloped by a very different atmo- 
sphere from that which pervaded the House 
when he was formerly a member, and one that 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 103 

was altogether more congenial; and although 
the interruption in his service had placed him 
to a certain extent in the position of a new 
member, yet he at once naturally assumed a 
more prominent place than he had ever held 
before. The Democratic leaders had treasured 
up some of his declarations made against slavery 
during his former service, and their efforts to 
call him to account provoked responses which 
were received by his own side with unmistak- 
able expressions of approval. Mr. Clemens in- 
terrupted Stevens during one of his speeches in 
the speakership contest, and asked him whether 
he had not declared in a speech in Congress 
that the slave States should be surrounded by 
free States as by a cordon of fire until slavery 
like a scorpion should sting itself to death. "If 
I did," replied Stevens, "it is in the books." 
Clemens pressed for a more direct answer, and 
Stevens then suggested that perhaps he was 
thinking of a remark of a friend of his from 
New York, who said he would surround the 
slave States "with an atmosphere of freeaom, 
and that they should breathe it or die." At the 
same time, Stevens declared that "republican- 
ism is founded in the love of universal liberty 
and in hostility to slavery," and that if he had 
the power he would abolish human servitude 
everywhere. But "the Constitution of the 



104 THADDEUS STEVENS 

United States," he added, "gives us no power 
to interfere with the institutions of our sister 
States." While he denied that the Republican 
party had any desire to disregard any of the 
safeguards which the Constitution threw around 
slavery, it would never favor any extension of 
slavery upon this continent, and it would at an 
opportune time abolish it in the District of Co- 
lumbia, where Congress undoubtedly had juris- 
diction. The contest over the speakership at 
last came to an end through the union of the 
forces hostile to the Democratic party, and thus 
a Republican speaker was elected. 

The first important work to engage the atten- 
tion of Stevens concerned the pressing needs of 
the national treasury, which was in a most im- 
pecunious condition. The Committee on Ways 
and Means, of which he was a member, reported 
a bill for the payment of outstanding treasury 
notes, to fund the debt, chiefly caused by the 
deficiency in the revenues which had existed for 
nearly three years, to repeal the tariff act of 
1857, and to substitute a new measure for rais- 
ing revenue, of which the important feature was 
an increase of the duties upon imports. The act 
of 1857 had not shone brightly as a producer of 
revenue. During each year of its existence the 
income had fallen far short of the expenditures, 
and for the three years the deficit had amounted 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 105 

in the aggregate to the sum of $50,000,000, 
which was an enormous amount upon a scale of 
national expenditures not one fifth so great as 
that of thirty -five years afterwards. 

The revenue measure proposed by the com- 
mittee to which Stevens belonged was exhaust- 
ively debated, and arguments which even at that 
time were far from novel, and certainly have 
not since been permitted to become unfamiliar, 
were offered in support respectively of protection 
and of free trade. Stevens made his contribu- 
tion to the discussion in a speech, in which he 
made the somewhat paradoxical point that the 
repeal of the corn laws in Great Britain was 
essentially a protective enactment, because the 
only advantage possessed by American manu- 
facturers over the British was in cheapness of 
food, and this was destroyed by the removal of 
the duty. He declared further that the British 
export duty on coal was also protective, because 
it compelled the manufacturers of France and 
other competing countries, poorly supplied with 
coal, to pay more for it, and to that extent 
gave the English manufacturer an advantage. 
This was ingenious, but hardly consistent with 
other arguments advanced on Stevens's side of 
the controversy, because both his propositions 
were based on the theory that laws which tended 
to give the manufacturers relatively cheaper 



106 THADDEUS STEVENS 

raw material were in their nature protective. 
The bill passed the House by a large majority, 
,ancl ultimately became a law in the closing days 
of the Congress, because of the withdrawal of 
the Southern senators, and because the Presi- 
dent, in view of the approaching war, felt com- 
pelled to accept the increased revenue which 
the bill offered, although it was drawn upon 
principles antagonistic to his own. 

Stevens also frequently took part in the de- 
bates on contested election cases, and it is 
worthy of notice that he condemned the system, 
imder which the whole House assumed to act 
judicially upon the long and contradictory re- 
cords usually found in those cases, and would 
then decide in almost every case, and with the 
best of intentions, upon partisan grounds. The 
obvious impossibility of securing the semblance 
of judicial fairness from a large body, composed 
of hundreds of members, of whom many were 
not lawyers, and of whom also not one in twenty 
would ordinarily have any knowledge of the 
evidence, strongly appealed to his common 
sense, partisan though he was, and impelled him 
to protest against a method which so often re- 
sulted in a mere travesty upon justice. He 
declared that it was a misfortune that we had 
not adopted the system prevailing in the Brit- 
ish parliament, under which a committee was 



AGAIN RETURNED TO CONGRESS 107 

selected and sworn to try the case, and their re- 
port was accepted as final. Stevens, however, 
bravely survived this attack of non-partisanship, 
and at a later period in his career, after he had 
become hardened from a long practice at politi- 
cal surgery, he had advanced so far that upon 
one occasion he entered the House when a vote 
was being taken upon a contested election case, 
of the merits of which he was entirely ignorant, 
and in order that he might know how to cast 
his own vote he grimly asked of a colleague: 
"Which one is our d — d rascal? " 

Since the system of which he complained had 
not been changed, he finally adapted himself to 
it. But it is significant that he condemned it 
and suggested a remedy, which since his day 
has been more than once proposed, for a system 
so certain of abuse, and which has cast reproach 
upon the House of Representatives. 

He also kept a keen eye upon possible jobs 
aimed at the treasury. An instance is found 
in a project of an international character. The 
Senate had added amendments to the naval 
appropriation bill, appropriating $300,000 to 
enable the President to carry into effect a con- 
ditional contract between the secretary of the 
navy and the "Chiriqui Improvement Com- 
pany," for securing coal and for harbor and 
other privileges in the Republic of Granada. 



108 THADDEUS STEVENS 

The project was supported by some very elo- 
quent and patriotic speeches. It was said that 
it would result in placing a "commercial crown 
upon American brows;" that it would reestab- 
lish our shipping industry and give us a large 
share of the East Indian trade, — and all for 
the small sum of $300,000, to be paid to the 
"Chiriqui Improvement Company." 

Stevens unpatriotically moved to amend by 
striking out the proposition and appropriating 
a small sum to pay the expense of a commis- 
sioner to investigate the entire matter. He said 
that his information was to the effect that there 
was no coal and that there was no harbor. The 
statement that if we did not take it some other 
nation would, was made in the interest of specu- 
lators and to prevent an investigation. France 
and Great Britain had known about it for 
years, but the gentlemen controlling the scheme 
would not sell it to them, but would hold it for 
their own country, "because they are patriots 
of the first water." We should not be hurried 
into the appropriation. He then raised a laugh 
against the proposition by saying : " I think it 
time to put an end to this whole thing by an 
actual touch of the spear of Ithuriel and send- 
ing the angel out there." 

One of the advocates of the measure replied 
that it was "not to be killed by the keen satire 



I 



CAMPAIGN OF 1860 109 

or the merciless ridicule of the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania; " but the House evidently thought 
differently, and adopted Stevens's amendment 
without a division. 

The great Granada scheme, however, was not 
to be put down easily. An enterprise with so 
much money involved, and directed against the 
treasury, rarely is. During the following ses- 
sion, when the minds of members were engrossed 
with the effort to compromise with the seceding 
States, it stealthily put in an appearance in the 
House again. This time it fastened itself as 
an amendment upon the deficiency appropria- 
tion bill, which seems to have been then, what 
it has ever since remained, an attractive bill for 
jobs little suited to stand the ordeal of scrutiny 
and debate. But it did not escape the attention | 
of Stevens, who assailed it in a half hour's I 
speech, in which he refused to call anybody dis- | 
honest, but declared that the scheme was "as 
bold a thing as was ever gotten up by honest 
men." He caused the project to be laughed 
out of the House even more decisively than on 
the previous occasion. 

The adjournment of the first session of the 
thirty-sixth Congress was followed by the most 
exciting presidential campaign in the history of 
the country. The great issue in the contest of 
1860 necessarily grew out of the question, 



110 THADDEUS STEVENS 

whether slavery should be extended, or whether 
it should be restrained within the limits in which 
it was then confined. The slavery leaders had 
only themselves to thank that at last their cher- 
ished institution was to furnish the substantial 
ground of difference in a presidential election. 
Had they rested content with the compromise 
of ten years before, it is probable that it would 
have stood for a generation. Undoubtedly there 
would have been agitation, as the " institu- 
tion," in the nature of things, could not endure 
forever. But few men, if any, could have been 
found at that time in public life willing to advo- 
cate the interference of Congress with slavery 
in States where it had been established. Even 
Stevens, with all his radicalism, was willing 
that the provisions of the Constitution should 
be enforced, although he would concede no 
doubtful construction. 

But scarcely had the compromise of 1850 be- 
come operative when the friends of slavery se- 
cured its repeal. By this action they succeeded 
in alienating a large number of their supporters 
whom they needed in the final contest. Doug- 
las, who had yielded to the extent of aiding in 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, had 
more than redeemed his reputation by his coura- 
geous struggle against the attempt to force slav- 
ery upon Kansas. The bitter hostility of the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1860 111 

weak and obnoxious administration of Buchanan 
gave him a new title to popular favor, and 
while he was only less hateful to the ultra 
slave party than was Lincoln himself, he was 
idolized by the majority of his own party, and 
admired by many of the followers of Lincoln. 
Li a personal campaign, which has since become 
somewhat fashionable among candidates for the 
presidency, but was then almost unknown, he 
displayed his remarkable capacity as a cam- 
paign speaker in widely separated portions of 
the country; and in the final disruption of his 
party, which was witnessed on election day, by 
far the greater number of its members were 
found following his standard. 

The unfortunate leadership which had broken 
up the Democratic party was in striking con- 
trast with the sagacious conduct of its antago- 
nist. There was never a happier outcome from 
the uncertain chances of a political convention 
than the nomination of Lincoln. He was not 
less strong as a candidate because he could 
hardly have been classed among the leaders of 
his party. He had always been active in the 
politics of his own State, and was chiefly known 
to the country on account of the ability he had 
shown as a leader in Illinois and especially in 
the joint debates with Douglas. But his com- 
parative obscurity gave him a great advantage 



112 THADDEUS STEVENS 

over Seward, whose conspicuous national career 
had engendered antagonisms which showed them- 
selves in the convention, and would have been 
sure to cause the loss of votes at the polls. 

Stevens sat in the convention as a delegate 
from Pennsylvania. His delegation supported 
Simon Cameron, whose relations with him per- 
sonally were not of the most cordial charac- 
ter, and who was brought forward on account 
of his prominence in the politics of his State. 
Stevens' real choice for the presidency was John 
McLean, who stood at the opposite extreme 
of the party from himself, and was probably 
the most conservative of all the candidates. ^ 
Cameron's strength, in common with that of 
the other candidates, was ultimately transferred 
to Lincoln, for whom Stevens voted upon the 
ballot which secured his nomination. With 
such a candidate supported by a young, ex- 
panding, and vigorous party, and with Douglas 
scarcely less hostile and more dangerous, be- 
cause he endeavored to take a middle ground, 
the cause of slavery as an aggressive institution 
was doomed. 

A good deal of importance has often been 
given to the fact that Lincoln was chosen pre- 
sident by a minority of the popular vote. It 
is true that the popular vote for the Lincoln 

^ McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Times, p. 259. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1860 113 

electors was much less than the combined vote 
of the other candidates; but it is hardly signifi- 
cant, because it is also true that the supporters 
of Douglas were nearer to the supporters -of 
Lincoln upon the question of the extension 
of slavery than they were to the party of Breck- 
enridge. Douglas had gone beyond the point 
of political safety when he yielded upon the 
Missouri Compromise. Later he had manfully 
broken with his party and burned his bridges 
behind him upon the Kansas question. The 
forces, then, in favor of extending slavery are 
measured by the vote for Breckenridge ; the 
forces against its practical extension are meas- 
ured by the combined vote for Lincoln and 
Douglas. No one appreciated this fact more 
clearly than did the Southern leaders. 

The meaning of the election appeared to be 
that, in the territory at that time covered by our 
flag, slavery should be confined to the States in 
which it then existed, with the possibility of its 
extension to the elevated and barren regions of 
New Mexico. That was the probable meaning 
of the popular verdict. But popular verdicts 
are sometimes given away when put in the 
keeping of intimidated representatives, as nar- 
rowly escaped illustration that very winter. 
Such a limitation meant the loss of relative 
political power to the South, and, with the 



114 THADDEUS STEVENS 

admission of new free States, with the rapid in- 
crease in population and wealth that was sure 
to come to the North, with the multiplication of 
free laborers armed with the ballot, who would 
not work in competition with slaves, and with a 
general advance in civilization, it also meant 
the ultimate abolition of slavery. 

The Southern statesmen were able to read the 
handwriting upon the wall, and for the purpose 
of securing the safety of their cherished institu- 
tion they determined upon the war which re- 
sulted in freedom. Peace very likely would 
ultimately have led to the same end, if, indeed, 
there could have been any real peace amid such 
antagonistic conditions; but the pathway that 
was chosen lay through the wilderness, and the 
goal was reached after the loss of more than six 
hundred thousand men, the destruction of enor- 
mous accumulations of wealth, and the creation 
of a condition of things in the revolting States 
which almost caused the extinction of civilization 
itself. 



CHAPTER VII 

SECESSION — CHAEACTER OF SLAVEEY AGITA- 
TION 

The thirty-sixth Congress came together again 
at the December session of 1860, under the 
shadow of impending war. The movement to 
disrupt the Union had been ab-eady well devel- 
oped. The secession convention in South Caro- 
lina had been called, and her national senators 
had resigned their seats. A convention had 
been ordered in Georgia, and a large sum of 
money appropriated to arm the State. The 
legislature of every Southern State which had 
assembled had taken steps in support of the 
movement. There was no room to doubt that 
a grave crisis was upon the country, a crisis 
which demanded vigilance, energy, courage 
well-tempered with discretion, and, above all, 
patriotism on the part of the officers of the gov- 
ernment. 

Unfortunately, President Buchanan had few 
of the qualities so necessary to brave such a 
threatening storm. He was imdoubtedly pa- 
triotic, and few men could write an abler state 



116 THADDEUS STEVENS 

paper. But he was credulous, inefficient, com- 
pletely under the domination of the Southern 
leaders, and so little alive to the real danger of 
the situation that he was apparently willmg to 
use it for his own justification and to reprove 
the people of the North for electing Lmcohi and 
casting so large a vote for Douglas. Through- 
out his administration he had been the bhnd 
instrument of those who were now seekmg to 
overturn the government, and his conduct at 
the critical moment deserves to be regarded as 
the most conspicuously weak action of his whole 



career. 



reel. , 

In his message to Congress, on the day on 
which that body assembled, he declared that 
"the long continued and intemperate mterfer- 
ence of the Northern people with the question 
of slavery in the Southern States has at length 
produced its natural effects. I have long fore- 
seen and often forewarned my countrymen of 
the now impending danger." The claim of 
Congress, or of the territorial legislatures, to ex- 
elude slavery from the territories, or the refusal 
of the States to enforce the fugitive slave law 
might, he said, have been endured by the South. 
The difficulty arose from the fact that this agi- 
tation has at length produced its "malign influ- 
ence upon the slaves, and inspired them with 
vague notions of freedom." He then painted 



SECESSION 117 

in vivid colors the results of tlie apprehension 
of a "servile insurrection," and added that "no 
political union, however fraught with blessings 
and benefits in all other respects, can long con- 
tinue, if the necessary consequence be to render 
the homes and the firesides of half the parties 
to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner 
or later the bonds of such a union must be sev- 
ered." 

Having delivered this powerful justification of 
secession, he declared his conviction "that this 
fatal period has not yet arrived." This decla- 
ration was doubtless sincere, but it proves that 
the President did not comprehend the gravity 
of the crisis. He then directed a strong argu- 
ment to the South against breaking .up the 
Union, but made his argument ineffective by 
subsequently reaching the conclusion that in 
certain cases "the injured States, after having 
used all peaceful and constitutional means to 
obtain redress, would be justified in revolution- 
ary resistance to the government of the Union," 
that the means of preserving the Union which 
Congress possessed were only of a conciliatory 
character, and that "the sword was not placed 
in their hands to preserve it by force." 

Jefferson Davis himself could not have writ- 
ten a message better suited to his purpose than 
was here transmitted to Congress by the Presi- 



118 THADDEUS STEVENS 

dent of the United States. The grievance of 
the South was admitted, its right to revolution- 
ary resistance in this particular case was all 
but admitted, and the power of preserving the 
Union by force was denied. The harm done by 
the message was beyond all calculation, not only 
in the South, where it encouraged the belief 
that there would be no resistance to secession, 
but in the North also, where Mr. Buchanan's 
personal influence was considerable and that of 
his office was great. 

The President was not long in seeing his fatal 
mistake. The hostile comments of the Southern 
press, the resignation of his venerable and pa- 
triotic secretary of state, Lewis Cass, and the 
firm stand by the attorney-general, Jeremiah S. 
Black, with reference to the reception of the 
"ambassadors" from South Carolina, who came 
to demand the surrender of the forts, brought 
the President to his senses. Those members of 
the cabinet who really represented secession, 
and who had powerfully contributed by the use 
of their positions to the cause of the disunion- 
ists, now that their influence with the President 
was gone, resigned, and proceeded to do openly 
that which they had long been doing secretly. 
His cabinet was speedily organized upon a 
basis which put better influences in the ascend- 
ency. Jeremiah S. Black was made secretary 



SECESSION 119 

of state, and he brought his splendid ability to 
the task of extricating the President from the 
difficulty in which he had been placed by his 
argument against the power of Congress to 
maintain the Union by force, and in which Mr. 
Black himself had been responsible to a consid- 
erable extent for involving him. The result 
was the message of January 8, 1861, which dis- 
played a radical change in tone from the mes- 
sage at the beginning of the session, and vindi- 
cated the right of the government "to use the 
military force defensively against those who 
resist the federal officers in the exercise of 
their legal functions, and against those who 
assail the property of the federal government." 
It is significant that the keen eye of Stevens 
had already detected this loophole of escape for 
the President, and that his sense of leadership 
impelled him to take action. On the last day 
of December, nine days before the reception of 
the message, he presented a resolution to the 
House, calling upon the President to inform the 
House upon the condition of the forts, arse- 
nals, and public property in the vicinity of the 
city of Charleston; "whether any means were 
taken to garrison them and put them in a de- 
fensible condition after it became evident that 
South Carolina intended to secede ; " how many 
troops were there, and whether orders had been 



120 THADDEUS STEVENS 

given for reinforcements. This resolution failed 
to receive the two-thirds vote which the rules of 
the House required for its passage, but it re- 
ceived a considerable majority, the vote being 
91 to 62. This action conveyed an unmistak- 
able intimation to the President that, in the 
opinion of a large majority of the House, it was 
the duty of the administration to provide for 
the defense of our forts and public property, 
and it must have infused into Mr. Buchanan 
a certain degx'ee of that courage of which he so 
sadly stood in need. 

But if the President had failed to comprehend 
the importance of the crisis, Congress proved 
itself fully alive to it. Indeed, it was so im- 
pressed with the magnitude of the danger, that 
it was willing, in order to avert it, to sacrifice 
freedom itself. Each House at once appointed 
a special committee to deal with the situation. 
The Senate committee was composed of thir- 
teen members, which was equal in number to 
the States which formed the original Union. 
The House committee of thirty -three contained 
a member for each of the States then included 
in the Union. ^ The Senate committee soon re- 
ported a disagreement, and its work amounted 
to nothing. 

The House committee was established by an 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 259. 



SECESSION 121 

amendment offered to a routine motion for the 
reference of the President's annual message. 
The amendment provided that so much of the 
message "as relates to the present perilous con- 
dition of the country be referred to a special 
committee of one from each State." The amend- 
ment was adopted by a vote of nearly five to 
one, but among the small minority were num- 
bered Stevens and the more radical anti-slavery 
men, who had been educated by the experience 
of previous compromises to believe in their utter 
futility. 

The sessions of the House committee were 
long and numerous, and its proceedings were 
interesting chiefly on account of the variety of 
remedies suggested and the extreme concessions 
which its members were willing to make for the 
preservation of the Union. It is only necessary 
to refer to a few of the more important proposi- 
tions in order to appreciate the wide scope of 
the inquiry entered upon by the committee. 
Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, suggested a law declaring 
the inexpediency of abolishing slavery in the 
District of Columbia, "unless with the consent 
of the States of Maryland and Virginia." Mr. 
Houston proposed the restoration of the line of 
36° 30', which was the line of the Missouri 
Compromise, and Mr. Taylor asked for a con- 
stitutional amendment providing that only per- 



122 THADDEUS STEVENS 

sons of "the Caucasian race and of pure and 
unmixed blood " shoiJd be allowed to vote for 
any officer of the national government. 

The proposition submitted by Mr. C. F. 
Adams was of far-reaching importance, and it 
would have effectually postponed to the millen- 
nium the peaceful abolition of slavery under 
law. He proposed to amend the Constitution 
so that no future amendment, proposing any 
interference with slavery, "shall originate with 
any State that does not recognize that relation 
within its own limits, or shall be valid without 
the assent of every one of the States composing 
the Union." The extreme character of this 
concession established Mr. Adams's high esti- 
mate of the value of the Union, and furnished 
material proof that he was indulging little in 
rhetoric, when, somewhat later, in a speech in 
the House in defense of the report of the com- 
mittee, he said: "Rather than this [a division 
of the Union] let the heavens fall." 

The remarkable thing in connection with this 
amendment was that it received nearly the 
unanimous support of the committee. There 
were few radical propositions made in favor of 
slavery which a majority of the committee were 
not disposed to favor. The leading recommen- 
dations of its report included Mr. Adams's 
amendment, the repeal of the so-called personal 



SECESSION 123 

liberty laws in the free States ; the admission of 
New Mexico with its slave laws ; and the amend- 
ment of the fugitive slave law, so that a person 
who was seized under the claim that he was a 
slave should have his right to freedom tried by 
jury, not in the State where he was seized, and 
of which he might be a free white citizen, but 
in the slave State from which he was accused of 
having fled.^ 

This, then, was to be the result of the disrup- 
tion of the Democratic party and the triumph 
of the Republicans upon a platform hostile to 
the growth of slavery! This was to be the 
outcome of the first national verdict rendered 
against that "institution"! The fugitive slave 
law was to be armed with new terrors not only 
against the slave, but also against free American 
citizens living in a free State, and the Constitu- 
tion was to be smeared all over with the muni- 
ments of slavery. Stevens had voted with a 
very small minority against the appointment of 
the committee, and he remained its consistent 
foe to the very end. 

Not long after its appointment, and when 
propositions of all sorts were being referred 
to it, Stevens supplied a name for the com- 
mittee which it had appeared to lack. The 
"Committee on Incubation," he called it. His 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. pp. 260, 261. 



124 THADDEUS STEVENS 

attitude upon the proposed compromises it 
would not be difficult to conjecture. He not 
only opposed by his vote every feature of the 
report, but he made a speech of considerable 
length in the House, in which he showed little 
mercy to the committee. He said that, when 
States in open and declared rebellion seized 
upon public forts and arsenals, he had no hope 
that "concession, humiliation, and compromise 
can effect anything whatever." He alluded to 
the lack of a compromising spirit on the part 
of the Southern representatives, as shown by 
their vote the day before against the considera- 
tion of the bill to admit Kansas, "that source 
of all our woes." The time for compromises 
had gone by, and the virtue most needed in that 
perilous time was "courage, calm unwavering 
courage, which no danger can appall." If states- 
men, "governed by such qualities, should be 
found at the head of this nation when danger 
comes, there can be no fear for the result. The 
Union will overcome all difficulties and last 
through unnumbered ages to bless millions of 
happy freemen." 

He did not believe that the Southern States 
were to be "turned from their deliberate and 
stern purpose by soft words." He then turned 
his attention to Buchanan in a somewhat severer 
manner than he had been accustomed to employ 



SECESSION 125 

towards him. He had usually alluded to him 
as "my constituent," from the fact that the 
President's home was in Lancaster, or in terms 
of mock eulogy as "our intelligent and patriotic 
President." But the occasion was too solemn 
for him to attempt to evoke the usual laugh. 
He resented as an "atrocious calumny " the 
President's charge, that the "long continued 
and intemperate interference of the Northern 
people with the question of slavery in the South- 
ern States " was responsible for the crisis. The 
President well knew that the anti-slavery party 
of the North never interfered with slavery in 
the States. Search the records of the legisla- 
tures and party conventions, and "you will find 
them always disclaiming the right or intention 
to touch slavery where it existed." He dis- 
missed the charge as a "calumny on the free- 
men of the North," made by one "who, during 
his whole political life, had been the slave of 
slavery." He thought that the time had at last 
arrived for determining whether secession was 
a rightful act. If it were, "then the Union is 
not worth preserving for a single day; " for if 
the emergency then existing shoidd pass away, 
"fancied wrongs would constantly arise" and 
induce States to secede. He then made a pow- 
erful argument against the right of secession, 
and declared that the South had no just griev- 



126 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ance. "Rather than show repentance for the 
election of Mr. Lincohi, with all its conse- 
quences, I would see this government crumble 
into a thousand atoms. If I cannot be a free- 
man, let me cease to exist." 

Returning to the committee of thirty -three, he 
said that it had shown its estimate of Southern 
grievances "by a most delicate piece of satire." 
As a remedy, and to lead back the rebellious 
States, the committee offered "to admit as a 
State about 250,000 square miles of volcanic 
desert, with less than a thousand white Anglo- 
Saxon inhabitants and some 40,000 or 50,000 
Indians, Mustees and Mexicans, who do not ask 
admission, and who have shown their caj^acity 
for self-government by the infamous slave-code 
which they have passed, which establishes the 
most cruel kind of black and white slavery." 
He must admit, however, that Mr. Corwin, the 
chairman of the committee, seemed "to have 
become enamored of peonage. He looks upon 
it as a benevolent institution, which saves the 
poor man's cow to furnish milk for his children 
by selling the father instead of the cow." The 
slave States would be much better off in the 
Union than out of it. If secession became ef- 
fective, there would be "one empire wholly 
slave-holding and one republic wholly free." 
While we should faithfully execute the present 



SECESSION 127 

compact, "yet if it should be torn to pieces by- 
rebels, our next United States will contain no 
foot of ground on which a slave can tread, no 
breath of air which a slave can breathe. Our 
neighboring slave empire must consider how it 
will affect their peculiar institution. They will 
be surrounded with freedom, with the whole 
civilized world scowling upon them." 

Mr. Dawes, who was a member of Congress 
at the time, has preserved a striking picture 
of the effect of this speech. "No one," says 
Mr. Dawes, "could forget the scene in which 
it occurred, though all I can say of it and of 
him seems tame enough without the inspiration 
of the occasion and of his presence. This 
speech was delivered in that last session in Mr. 
Buchanan's administration, after the election of 
Mr. Lincoln, when the House was more like a 
powder magazine than a deliberative assembly. 
His denunciation of the plotters of treason to 
their face was terrible, and his expose of the 
barbarism of the so-called civilization behind 
them was awful. . . . Nearly fifty Southern 
members rose to their feet, and rushed towards 
him with curses and threats of personal violence. 
As many of his friends gathered around him, 
and moving him in a sort of hollow square to 
the space in front of the speaker, opened before 
his assailants, and stood guard over him while 



128 THADDEUS STEVENS 

he arraigned the slavocracy in an indictment 
for its crimes against humanity, surjiassing 
in severity even the great arraignment by 
Mr. Sumner. He was then an old man ap- 
proaching seventy, on whose frame and voice 
time had already made sad inroads, but still 
standing erect and firm as a man of thirty-five. 
Calm and self-possessed as a judge, he lashed 
them into a fury, and then bade them compose 
themselves at their leisure. The excitement 
aroused by his fiery denunciation and defiant 
scorn beggars all description, and can live only 
in the memory of those who witnessed it." ^ 

Stevens was not a man to palter with a great 
crisis. His mind was eminently practical. He 
had little of the theorist or dreamer in his 
nature, and while the remedy which he might 
prescribe might not afford the wisest practical 
solution, he was unsurpassed in his keenness of 
vision and in his capacity to diagnose correctly 
a national condition. While he utterly repudi- 
ated the recommendations of the committee of 
thirty-three, as contrary to the principles by 
which he governed his political conduct, he saw 
that not only were they wrong in theory, but 
that they aggravated instead of removing the 
difficulty. His brave words did not avail to 

1 MS. Dartmouth College address : Thaddeiis Stevens as a 
Leader in a Great Crisis. 



I 



SECESSION 129 

defeat the compromise. The most important 
of the propositions of the committee were 
adopted. By more than the two-thirds vote 
required by the Constitution the House passed 
an amendment even more strongly guarding 
slavery than did that which had been put for- 
ward by Mr. Adams. The desired amend- 
ment of the fugitive slave law was also passed, 
but the bill for the admission of New Mexico 
failed. 1 

It is difficult at this distance to see what the 
authors of this astounding surrender to slavery 
hoped to gain by it. The radicalism of Stevens 
contained vastly the purer and also the more 
practical wisdom. The secession programme 
had been steadily carried out. State after State 
had adopted what was solemnly termed "the 
ordinance of secession." More than two weeks 
before the House voted upon the recommenda- 
tions of the committee the Southern Congress 
had assembled, and its President, Howell Cobb, 
had declared that secession "is now a fixed and 
irrevocable fact, and the separation is perfect, 
complete, and perpetual." Before the vote was 
taken in the House, Jefferson Davis had been 

^ Mr. Blaine, usually so accurate, is in error in his statement 
that the bill to admit New Mexico passed the House. Twenty 
Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 267. It was laid upon the table, 
where it apparently always remained. Congressional Globe, 
86th Congress, 2d session, p. 1327. 



130 THADDEUS STEVENS 

cliosen President of tlie Southern Kepublic, 
his cabinet had been appointed, and, so far as 
governmental organization was concerned, the 
movement had been consummated. Nearly a 
month before that time Stevens had spoken 
his brave words, and had protested against the 
"cowardly counsels" that would operate to "un- 
nerve the people." Instead of still further 
hiuniliating the spirit of the North by the pas- 
sage of the Corwin compromise measures, it 
would seem too clear for doubt that the time had 
come for action of an opposite character, ihe 
proceedings of Congress at that grave crisis of 
our history were in keeping with the conduct 
of President Buchanan, and certainly cannot be 
regarded to-day with pride. Its members were 
unquestionably patriotic men; but they were 
overwhehned by the magnitude of the peril, 
and they lacked a competent leader. Possibly 
the time had not yet arrived for aggressive 
leadership. And while the old remedy, which 
had been applied so often with only temporary 
success, was again prescribed, and wise men 
were endeavoring in vain to put off the irre- 
pressible conflict" by new concessions, the man 
for the crisis sat by, protesting and threatening, 
waiting for his time to come. 

With the outbreak of the war the old forms 



■■^.. 



CHAKACTER OF SLAVERY AGITATION 131 

of the slavery question, which had for forty 
years engrossed the attention of the American 
people, were displaced and a new political chap- 
ter opened. It must not be forgotten that the 
people living in the South during the period 
of the controversy were not responsible for the 
existence of slavery. It had come down to them 
from a former generation. Most of the wicked 
profits of its establishment had gone to the 
owners of foreign ships, and some of them to 
people who lived in the North. The "institu- 
tion" had existed in New England, and had 
vanished for the very good reason that it did 
not pay. It had at one time promised also to 
disappear from the South for the same reason. 
In most if not all of the slave States, during the 
years which immediately followed the adoption 
of the Constitution, slave property was not jsro- 
fitable, and in some of them it was believed to 
be an absolute burden. Some of the greatest 
of the earlier Southern statesmen, either during 
their lives or by will, gave freedom to their 
slaves. The very convention which framed the 
Constitution conferred upon Congress the power 
to abolish the slave trade after 1808, and with- 
out the supply of slaves which came from impor- 
tation it was believed that the institution would 
languish and die. At the same time. Congress 
passed the great ordinance dedicating to free- 



132 THADDEUS STEVENS 

dom tlie vast territory given to the government 
'by. the States, and chiefly by the slave State of 
Virginia. But various causes, and chiefly the 
increased production of cotton, had of late 
.years greatly augmented the value of slaves. 
At the beginning of the war, the annual pro- 
fits of slavery are conservatively estimated to 
have been $300,000,000, which, according to 
the rate then prevailing, represented the uiter- 
est upon a capital of $5,000,000,000. If to 
this enormous amount is added the value of 
the plantations and other property, which was 
believed to rest to a considerable extent upon 
the perpetuation of slavery, a sum is produced 
which represents by far the greater part of the 
valuation of the property of the slave States. 

The Southern people had been born and nur- 
tured in the belief that slavery had a foundation 
in the Scriptures. They had heard its benefi- 
cence proclaimed from the pulpit, and had lis- 
ened to sermons contrasting the deplorable con- 
dition of the negroes in Africa with the happy 
lot of slaves upon the Southern plantations. So 
long as slavery appeared to be simply a divine 
institution it promised to disajjpear; but when 
it began to pay, the enterprise of the statesmen 
who represented it was at once exerted for its 
extension and for laws that would make their 
property more secure. Undoubtedly, too, the 



I 



CHAKACTER OF SLAVERY AGITATION 133 

agitation of the most extreme abolitionists pro- 
duced an apprehension among the Southex-n 
people which caused them to distrust the suffi- 
ciency of constitutional safeguards alone for tHe 
preservation of their institution. They felt im- 
pelled to extend the sway of slavery, not pri- 
marily for the profits that it would produce in 
the new territory which might be acquired, but 
to maintain their political ascendency in the 
country and to secure the safety which that 
would bring. 

It is impossible to question the high moral 
quality or the wisdom of the abolition move- 
ment as a whole. It contributed indispensable 
strength to the forces which finally gave to the 
slave his freedom. But too much of the agita- 
tion was simply disruptive in its tendency, and 
was marked by the affected superiority and the 
narrow arrogance so often seen in those who 
follow reform as they would follow a trade. 
The abuse and vilification, which a few irrecon- 
cilable spirits impartially bestowed upon the 
South and upon every Northern statesman who 
desired the ultimate end of freedom and labored 
to discover some peaceful and effective means 
for its accomplishment, tended less strongly to 
freedom than to disunion and war. Violence 
made few converts and many enemies, and doubt- 
less to a considerable extent neutralized the 



134 THADDEUS STEVENS 

efforts of those who saw more efficacy in rational 
and temperate methods, such, for instance, as 
Lincohi employed, than in the calling of bad 
names. It is indeed remarkable that when the 
test came, in the secession winter of 1860-61, 
the abolition sentiment should have shown so 
little strength; that its rejDresentatives should 
have been denied a hearing in the most liberal 
cities of the North ; that two thirds of the mem- 
bers of the House of Representatives should have 
voted for more odious compromises with slavery 
than had ever before been seriously proposed 
by its most extreme advocate, and that the Re- 
publicans of the Senate and House in creat- 
ing territorial governments for the magnificent 
domains now included in Dakota, Colorado, 
and Nevada, unanimously recognized the very 
principle which Webster had enunciated in his 
famous Seventh of March speech with regard 
to New Mexico, and for which he had been so 
bitterly condeihned. 

The small class to which I have referred had 
indeed contributed in no small measure to the 
causes which produced secession and war, but 
they were powerless to keep the nation from 
being rent asunder, or to preserve the slave 
from the hopeless fate which would have been 
his under a republic dedicated to slavery. The 
force that rescued the slave and that saved the 



CHARACTER OF SLAVERY AGITATION 135 

country was the sentiment of union ; and the 
man who more than any other had created that 
sentiment was the great statesman whose last 
days were made bitter by the savage assaults of 
the abolitionists. It was the principles which 
Webster so powerfully proclaimed that raised 
and animated our armies ; preserved^ the govern- 
ment, and made it possible for the slave to have 
his freedom ; and from the attacks that were so 
unjustly made, history has not been slow in 
according him a magnificent vindication. If 
Washington created, Webster equally preserved, > 
the Union. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LEADER OF THE HOUSE 

President Lincoln was not long in displaying, 
after his inauguration, the moderate sj)irit which 
distinguished his administration. It was his 
great characteristic to refrain from any attempt 
to force public opinion, but rather to permit 
it to grow, and to take advantage of it at the 
opportune moment. He endeavored at the out- 
set to unite his own party, and four of the seven 
members of his cabinet were taken from those 
.candidates who, after himself, received the high- 
est number of votes for the presidential nomina- 
tion in the Chicago convention. Stevens had 
strong support for a cabinet place, and after 
Cameron's withdrawal as a candidate he had an 
excellent chance of success; but Cameron finally 
reentered the contest, and his prominence as a 
presidential candidate secured him the position 
of secretary of war. Stevens did not relish 
being set aside for a man with whom he was 
not friendly, and appears to have got what con- 
solation he could out of criticising the composi- 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 137 

tion of the cabinet. ^ The President, however, 
had made a safe choice. He had secured ad- 
visers who were believed to hold moderate opin- 
ions, which was a great advantage when, in 
view of Northern sentiment, it was vital that the 
war should have no appearance of being one of 
aggression on the part of the national govern- 
ment. They maintained also a high average of 
ability, and, with one or two exceptions, were 
well fitted for the work assigned them. 

Lincoln took great care to avoid giving of- 
fense in his inaugural, and the caution which 
he displayed during his first month of office 
went far towards allaying the fears of Northern 
Democrats that his election was an act of hos- 
tility to the South. The attack of the Confed- 
erate forces upon Fort Sumter brought the 
waiting policy to an end, and rallied the people 
of the North to a defense of the national author- 
ity, which had been violently assailed. The 
sound of hostile guns dispelled the necessity for 
guarded action and made Lincoln's duty clear. 
He had the North behind him upon the issue of 
not permitting the Union to be dismembered 
and two independent and probably hostile gov- 

1 He said the cabinet was composed of an assortment of 
rivals whom the President appointed from courtesy, oue stump 
speaker from Indiana and two representatives of the Blair 
family. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 286. 



138 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ernments established upon its ruins. That was 
the principle for which he fought. He could 
wait until the sentiment of the North became 
equally strong for the abolition of slavery, either 
as a necessary measure for the preservation of 
the Union or from hatred of the institution it- 
self, and in the mean time he could endure the 
abuse of those who desired a more radical course. 
He issued a call for Congress to meet on the 
Fourth of July, apparently intending to permit 
the issue to ripen, so that Congress should clearly 
perceive the necessity of preparing for war. He 
evidently did not desire the paralyzing effect of 
further attempts to compromise a hopeless situ- 
ation. 

In marked contrast with the protracted strug- 
gle in the preceding House an organization was 
at once effected. Mr. Grow was chosen speaker. 
The loss of the Democratic members from the 
seceding States left the Republicans with a 
large majority. Stevens was made chairman of 
the Committee on Ways and Means, which was 
the position of leadership. But he needed no 
formal christening as leader. He was, says Mr. 
Blaine, "the natural leader, who assumed his 
place by common consent."^ Events had com- 
pletely vindicated the position he had taken the 
preceding winter. The time for compromise had 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 325. 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 139 

gone by, and the occasion demanded a man of 
direct and positive force. At that time the 
Committee on Ways and Means had the juris- 
diction now exercised by the same committee 
together with that of the Committee on Appro- 
priations, which had not then been created. 
Thus he was at the head of the committee 
charged with the duty of devising means for 
raising the revenue to prosecute a great war, 
and also having charge of the appropriation 
bills which directed how the money should be 
spent. The burden was tremendous. 

The message which the President sent to Con- 
gress presented the situation most judiciously 
as well as forcibly, and was, if possible, a more 
successful political document than even his 
inaugural address. He asked Congress to place 
at the disposal of the government 400,000 men 
and 1400,000,000. "That number of men," 
he said, "is about one tenth of those of proper 
age within the regions where apparently all are 
willing to engage, and the sum is less than a 
twenty-third part of the money value owned by 
the men who seem ready to devote the whole." 
He thought that the time had arrived for giving 
an appropriate name to the movement against 
the government. The Southern people had 
been loyal to the Union, and their leaders had 
disguised from them the real character of ' the 



140 THADDEUS STEVENS 

proceeding by employing a term which had to 
their ears a constitutional sound. The move- 
ment, rightly named, Lincoln said, was "rebel- 
lion" instead of "secession." This doctrine of 
"secession" had "drugged and insidiously de- 
bauched" the people of the South for thirty 
years. He expressed the deepest regret that 
he found the duty of employing the war power 
of the government forced upon him, but he said 
that he "must perform this duty or surrender 
the existence of the government." This mes- 
sage awoke an enthusiastic response in Con- 
gress. A large majority of both Houses were 
patriotic men who would go to any length in 
support of the policy of the President, and they 
at once set to work to meet the enormous de- 
mands that were made. 

The position occupied by Stevens at the head 
of the great financial committee of that House 
of Congress which has the sole constitutional 
power to originate revenue bills most intimately 
associates him with all measures for raising 
or spending money to suppress the rebellion. 
The details of those measures would be irksome 
to the general reader, and are far too volumi- 
nous for insertion here. But a reference to the 
most important of them is absolutely necessary 
to a proper understanding of his work. The 
request of Lincoln for $'400,000,000 was modi- 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 141 

fied by the secretary of the treasury, who, in 
his detailed estimates, reduced the amount by ; 
nearly $82,000,000. But $318,000,000 was still 
a considerable sum of money to raise from two 
thirds of the country at war with the other 
third. It was five times the ordinary annual 
revenue which the government had before that 
time raised from the entire countiy, and seven 
times the actual annual revenue during the de- 
ficit-producing years of James Buchanan. The 
national credit, too, was at the lowest ebb, as 
a result, not perhaps so much of civil war, as of 
the incompetency which during four years had 
distinguished the management of the treasury. 
From 1857 to 1861 the average annual excess 
of the exjjenditures over the revenues had been 
about $20,000,000, which would correspond 
with a deficit of at least $120,000,000 on the 
financial scale on which the government was 
conducted in 1898, before the outbreak of the 
Spanish war. It is not to be wondered at that 
this enormous deficiency, so long continued, 
should have obliterated almost the last vestige 
of credit, and that when Lincoln was confronted 
with an empty and yawning treasury, he found 
the borrowing capacity of the government nearly 
exhausted. 

During the preceding Congress a law had been 
passed, authorizing an issue of $10,000,000 in 



142 THADDEUS STEVENS 

treasury notes to meet certain current obliga- 
tions. The practical result of this issue proved 
that by January 1, 1861, the credit of the gov- 
ernment had reached a twelve per cent basis. 
The new tariff act, which went into effect on 
April 1, greatly increased import duties, and, 
notwithstanding the decrease in importations 
anticipated on account of the war, it promised 
to augment the revenues. Secretary Chase, by 
great effort, and with the aid of the banks which 
patriotically cooperated with him to repair the 
government's credit, was able to raise at inter- 
vals a few millions of dollars; but on July 1 
the cash in the treasury fell about '130,000,000 
short of loans soon to mature and of unpaid 
appropriations for the previous fiscal year. In 
his estimate of expenditures of $318,000,000, 
which the secretary sent to Congress, he in- 
cluded the regular appropriations already made. 
The probable amount required to sustain mili- 
tary operations was put at 1217,000,000, and 
the interest charge on the new debt, the deficiency 
for the preceding year, and the treasury notes 
about to mature or already due, would absorb 
more than 140,000,000 in addition. Congress 
was then asked to appropriate about $260,000,- 
000 of new money, and to provide new means 
for raising that amount, together with the defi- 
ciency between the appropriations already made. 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 143 

and the income already provided for the current 
year. It was asked to supplement existing and 
most inadequate sources of revenue so that in 
all f 80,000,000 might be derived from taxation, 
and to authorize the raising of $240,000,000 by 
loans. 

It was doubtless due in part to Mr. Chase's 
lack of experience in financial matters — a de- 
fect which the enormous burdens of his position 
speedily repaired — that he recommended rais- 
ing so small a portion of the expenditures by 
current taxation, and that in time of war a 
wealthy people were asked to pay a smaller 
tax per head than they have at any subsequent 
time been called upon to contribute in time of 
peace. 

Mr. Chase had been a prominent figure in the 
Senate, and had received a considerable vote 
for the presidential nomination in the Chicago 
convention of 1860. He was broad-minded, 
patriotic, and of absolute integrity. He was 
well fitted, as Horace Greeley said, to "com- 
mand in the highest degree the public confi- 
dence." But he lacked the necessary experi- 
ence and training to fit him for the difficult 
task to which he was called. The position was 
not attractive to him, and he at first declined 
it on the ground that he was not fitted for it 
"either by education or habits," and because 



144 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the appropriate place for him was the Senate 
to which he had just been chosen again. ^ He 
finally consented to accept the office because, 
by refusing to comply with the request of the 
President, he might seem to "shrink from cares 
and labors for the common good which cannot 
be honorably shunned." ^ The sequel proved 
that he was endowed with many great qualities 
for the position, and that while it was expen- 
sive to the government to supply during the 
first years of the war his defects in special 
training, he is perhaps outranked only by Alex- 
ander Hamilton and John Sherman among our 
secretaries of the treasury. 

Congress at once proceeded to the work of 
passing the necessary laws, and never was a 
response more promptly made. Within three 
days after he had been appointed chairman of 
the Committee on Ways and Means, Stevens 
reported a bill to the House, authorizing the 
secretary to borrow -$250,000,000. On the next 
day he called up the bill under a suspension of 
the rules and with debate limited to one hour. 
This time was chiefly occupied by Mr. Vallan- 
digham, of Ohio, who made a noisy and intem- 
perate attack upon the President, which Stevens 
contemptuously permitted to go without reply, 

1 Bolles, Financial History, 1861-18S5, p. 103. 
^ Letter of resignation to the governor of Ohio. 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 145 

and the bill was then passed with only five 
dissenting votes. 

Stevens immediately followed this bill with 
another appropriating $160,000,000 for the 
army. This measure encountered some oppo- 
sition in debate, and the objection was made 
that the Military Committee had not yet recom- 
mended the increase of the army, for the main- 
tenance of which the large appropriation was 
proposed. Stevens replied that he was only 
granting the demands of the administration. 
He proposed to make the appropriations so that 
Congress could adjourn at the earliest possible 
day. He assumed that the Military Commit- 
tee would grant to the President what he asked ; 
but he caustically intimated that if it should 
see fit to draw its bill upon different lines, the 
bill would be rejected. The House followed 
Stevens at once, and passed the bill, as it also 
did the naval bill, carrying i30,000,000 more, 
which Stevens called up on the same day. 
Within one week from the day on which Con- 
gress was called together, the House had voted 
substantially all the enormous sums of money 
asked for by the President to carry on the war, 
and had authorized a debt far greater than had 
rested upon the government at any time in its 
history. 

The work of preparing the revenue bill was 



146 THADDEUS STEVENS 

much more difficult. Theories of taxation are 
apt to be numerous and contradictory. But the 
difficulty in formulating such a measure is not 
so much with theories as with the practical ap- 
plication of them. The fish dealer, who wrote 
to Sir Robert Peel that he believed in free trade 
in everything except herring, illustrated the com- 
mon tendency to modify theory so as to conform 
with seK-interest, and also the practical diffi- 
culties which representatives have to encounter 
in framing revenue bills. A general tax, levied 
equally upon all, is one which in a great emer- 
gency no one, unless a doctrinaire, would have 
sufficient interest to oppose; but a tax levied 
upon the banker or the farmer or the brewer 
falls with special weight and inevitably provokes 
protests from the affected classes even in time 
of war, and according to their number and in- 
fluence they are apt to be heard in Congress. 

Stevens acted, however, with the expedition 
suited to the emergency and forestalled a good 
many of the ordinary political difficulties by 
prompt action. With very little delay he brought 
the revenue bills into the House. They in- 
creased the duty upon sugar and a great many 
other articles, imposed very moderate duties 
upon tea and coffee, levied a direct tax of 
$30,000,000 upon real estate, which was ajopor- 
tioned in the constitutional way among the States 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 147 

according to population, and provided an income 
tax upon all incomes of over eight hundred dol- 
lars derived from personal property, evidently 
upon the theory that such a tax would not be 
direct. It was estimated that these taxes wouid 
produce about 150,000,000 a year, an estimate 
which, it was afterwards discovered, did not 
make sufficient allowance for the depressing in- 
fluence of war upon business, and was therefore 
much too great. 

The direct tax upon real estate aroused the 
opposition of members who represented agricul- 
tural districts, and this feature was again and 
again referred back to the committee. CoKax 
and Conkling were especially hostile. The de- 
bate was most animated, and it was only after 
consenting to reduce the tax by $10,000,000 
and portraying with all his force the needs of 
the country that Stevens was able to secure its 
passage. He himself represented one of the 
wealthiest farming districts in the country, com- 
posed of what he called "a close German popu- 
lation;" but he declared that he would vote for 
the bill and submit himself "to their judgment, 
their patriotism, their good sense," and if they 
saw fit to reject him he would abide by the de- 
cision "without a murmur and without regret." 
While no man could be more uncompromising 
than Stevens when he had a large majority at 



148 THADDEUS STEVENS 

his back, he showed also by his management of 
the direct tax that no one could be more con- 
ciliatory. 

The "Crittenden resolution," so called from 
its venerable author, aimed to set forth the ob- 
jects of the war, and was perhaps the most im- 
portant measure of this session, not of a finan- 
cial or military character. It declared that 
"the war is not waged in any spirit of oppres- 
sion, or for any purpose of conquest or subjuga- 
tion," or to interfere with "the rights or estab- 
lished institutions" of the Southern States, but 
to maintain the Constitution and "preserve the 
dignity, equality, and rights of the several States 
imimpaired," and that after the attainment of 
these objects "the war ought to cease." This 
resolution passed the Senate and House with 
practical unanimity so far as the Republicans 
were concerned. But it did not have the sup- 
port of Stevens, who stood almost alone in with- 
holding his vote. He believed that the time 
had gone by for preambles and explanations, 
and that the nation should reserve to itself the 
largest liberty in waging the war which had 
been forced upon it. The contest had not pro- 
ceeded far before the principles of the resolu- 
tion were violated, and at the opening of the 
very next session, when it was proposed to re- 
affirm the resolution, Stevens moved to lay the 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 149 

matter on the table, and the House sustained 
his motion. 

Stevens vigorously supported the "confisca- 
tion" bill which confiscated property "used for 
insurrectionary purposes," and contained a spe- 
cial provision, in effect giving freedom to slaves 
who were employed upon any fort or intrench- 
ment or in any military or naval service against 
the government. The bill was very much to 
Stevens's liking. He had seen the fugitives 
skurrying from the field of Bull Run, and he 
was not disjDosed to talk much about the Con- 
stitution. He justified the measure, because, 
imder the laws of war, it would weaken the 
enemy, and if it was justifiable to destroy an 
enemy it certainly was permissible to weaken 
him by taking away his means of aggression. 
The time had come when the laws of war should 
govern our conduct. He declared that, when 
we had conquered a slave, we should never 
shrink from saying "Go and be free." He 
would not say that the war was made for that 
purpose. "Ask them who made the war what 
is its object." In the course of this speech he 
declared that he did not like the Crittenden 
resolution, because it looked like "an apology 
from us in saying what were the objects of the 
war." In his view the one object of the war 
was "to subdue the rebels." He did not believe 



150 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the Northern people would long stand by and 
see their sons and brothers slaughtered by 
rebels, " and forbear to caU upon their enemies 
to be our friends and to help us in subduing 
them." He predicted that, if the war continued, 
the time would come when every slave "belong- 
ing to a rebel . . . will be called upon to aid 
us in war against their masters and to restore 
the Union." The House did not follow him at 
that time, and rejected the bill ; but at a later 
time it verified his prediction by passing the bill, 
and thus placing the nation upon his ground. 

Congress adjourned upon August 6. In a 
session of hardly a month it had transacted an 
extraordinary amount of business. It had been 
made to appreciate the gravity of the crisis by 
an object lesson in war, for the battle of Bull 
Kun occurred during the session, and, as a result 
of that bloody disaster, the capital itself was 
for the moment believed to be in danger. It 
devoted its attention almost exclusively to the 
war, and generously supported the Administra- 
tion. It provided for the increase of the army 
to half a million of men. It greatly augmented 
the navy. It provided a variety of new taxes, 
estimated to add 150,000,000 each year to the 
revenue. It authorized a loan, the magnitude 
of which had never been approached in the his- 
tory of the country, and it passed appropriation 



LEADER OF THE HOUSE 151 

bills carrying $265,000,000, —an amount equal 
to four times the annual peace appropriations 
of that time. Upon nearly all these momen- 
tous questions it devolved upon Stevens to lead, 
and the results showed that he had not begun 
badly. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE LEGAL TENDER 

The war began in earnest during the special 
session of Congress, and it did not begin aus- 
piciously for the Union, The disaster at Bull 
Run did not, however, shake the purpose of the 
North. It only proved that the contest was to 
be no dress parade affair, and thereby it in- 
spired new efforts. The navy had been greatly 
streng-thened. The offer of enlistments was far 
in excess of the number of troops called for, 
and before the end of 1861 more than 700,000 
men had been mustered into the service.^ But 
no decisive victory had yet come to the Ameri- 
can arms, and the affair at Ball's Bluff was 
hardly less disheartening than had been the 
defeat at Bull Run. 

The enormous preparation demanded, of 
course, enormous expenditures, even in excess 
of the great amounts appropriated at the special 
session. It will be necessary to consider the 
working of the measures with which Stevens 

^ Report of the Secretary of War, Slth Congress, 2d session. 



THE LEGAL TENDER 153 

was identified at the special session of Congress 
and the demands upon the treasury for which 
he was to be asked to provide at the first regular 
session. 

Capital is proverbially as timid as men are 
brave, and the danger that inspires the one is 
very apt to put the other to flight. If in the 
preceding winter, in time of peace, the govern- 
ment had been able to borrow a few paltry mil- 
lions only at an extortionate rate of interest, 
how could its friends now hope, since upon a 
broken credit there had been superadded the 
financial disturbance of a gigantic civil war, 
that it could obtain the hundreds of millions 
with which to contend for its existence ? 

Immediately after the adjournment of Con- 
gress the secretary set about borrowing money 
under the provisions of the loan bill. To this 
end he met the representatives of the banks of 
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The 
government's needs were imperative, and its 
credit poor. The secretary had nothing to offer 
which, under the circumstances, could tempt an 
investor. He was almost absolutely at the 
mercy of those with whom he was dealing. No 
hope could be entertained of getting money 
abroad, where the financial interests were hostile 
to the United States, and were hoping to profit 
by their dismemberment. There are few brighter 



154 THADDEUS STEVENS 

pages in the history of the rebellion than that 
on which is written the conduct of the bankers 
at this crisis. Instead of attempting to take 
advantage of the government, instead of driv- 
ing a sharp bargain, or even asking for compen- 
sation for the financial risk that could be fairly 
charged against the transaction, they arbitrarily 
raised the national credit to a far higher point 
than that at which it stood before the war. 

The effect of the arrangement made by the 
secretary was that the banks received at par 
$100,000,000 of the so-called seven-thirty notes ^ 
of the government payable in three years, and 
$50,000,000 of its six per cent bonds "at the 
rate equivalent to par for the bonds bearing 
seven per cent interest; "^ and they paid in coin 
for the whole subscription of $150,000,000. The 
entire cajjital of the banks associated together 
in the arrangement was only $120,000,000 — 
many millions less than the combined liabili- 
ties which they assumed toward a government 
whose very existence was seriously threatened 
by civil war.^ It was one of the greatest and 

1 The transaction witli regard to the seven-thirties practi- 
cally amounted to a loan by the banks to the government, to be 
repaid out of the proceeds of the " popular loan ; " or, if those 
proceeds should be inadequate, then when the seven-thirties 
should mature. 

2 Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, appendix, 37th 
Congress, 2d session. 

3 Bolles, Financial History, 1861-1SS5, p. 25. 



THE LEGAL TENDER 155 

most daring transactions that had ever been 
recorded in financial history, and it exhibited a 
form of patriotism which was as salutary as it 
was unusual. 

This action of the banks enabled the secretary 
to meet pressing demands, and imparted an 
appearance of solidity to the treasury. But it 
was like throwing money into a maelstrom, and 
soon more was needed. Deeply involved as the 
banks already were, an effort was made again 
to secure their assistance, and that they were 
not able to help was largely due to the secretary 
himself. The banks had urged him to draw 
checks upon some single bank in each city, 
which bank should represent the syndicate, in- 
stead of requiring the entire subscriptions to be 
actually paid from the reserves of the banks in 
coin. These checks would to a large extent have 
performed the functions of money, and would 
therefore have increased the circulating medium, 
and they ordinarily would have been redeemed 
in the notes of the banks in the syndicate, 
which were all upon a specie-paying basis. The 
obvious advantage of this arrangement would 
have been to protect the coin reserves of the 
banks, and preserve the solidity so necessary 
not merely for themselves but for the future 
operations of the government. 

But Mr. Chase was a " hard money " man in 



156 THADDEUS STEVENS 

so literal a sense that it ended in his becoming 
through necessity a "soft money" man.^ He 
refused to grant the request of the banks, and 
received from them and paid out to the govern- 
ment's creditors the actual specie. The with- 
drawal of these large amounts of coin from the 
reserves of the banks and the scattering of the 
same over the country were, as the president of 
one of the principal banks well said, equivalent to 
pulling away "continually the foundations upon 
which the whole structure rested." Mr. Chase 
aggravated the evil results of his refusal by 
issuing from time to time demand notes upon 
the treasury, which must of necessity be re- 
deemed in coin, if the credit of the government 
was to be maintained. These notes were very 
soon discredited, and while the banks were 
called upon to pay the government and their 
own customers in coin, they could not safely re- 
ceive them as money from the people. Under 
these adverse conditions the coin reserves of the 
associated banks rapidly dwindled. The secre- 
tary refused to change his policy, and the banks, 
from having been in a remarkably strong condi- 
tion so late as October, suspended specie pay- 
ments on the twenty-eighth day of December. 

^ Sec. 6 of the Act of August 5, 1861, would appear effectu- 
ally to authorize the suspension of the sub-treasury act, which 
Mr. Chase urged against the transaction. 



THE LEGAL TENDER 157 

The like suspension of the national treasury fol- 
lowed as a matter of course. 

This event was of transcendent importance 
in the financial history of the civil war. Had 
the coin reserves of the banks not been bodily 
carried away by the government, when a pay- 
ment in bank notes upon a specie basis would 
have been practically as good and more conven- 
ient; and had this mischief not been followed 
up by the unnecessary issue of demand notes by 
the treasury, it is practically certain that the 
banks could have maintained specie payments 
for a considerable time, and that they would 
have been most useful agents in getting govern- 
ment securities in the early days of the war, as 
they were near its close, into the hands of in- 
vestors at par. It is indeed hardly probable, as 
some high authorities have declared, that the 
enormous expenses of the war could have been 
borne and the treasury not have succumbed to 
the strain; but, if the catastrophe could have 
been averted even for a year, the saving to the 
government would have been great in the higher 
price which it would have received for its se- 
curities in that interval, and in the difference 
between the price of supplies bought upon an 
inflated basis and the price at which they could 
have been bought upon a coin basis. It was 
unfortunate for the government that the depar- 



158 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ture from the specie basis was forced so early in 
the contest, when original and most valuable 
sources of financial aid were almost untouched 
and certainly far from being exhausted. 

The secretary then had been at first success- 
ful in placing the loan authorized by Congress, 
although the temporary success had been fol- 
lowed by disaster. The first operations of the 
new revenue law had disappointed expectations. 
Mr. Chase was compelled to report in Decem- 
ber that the revenues had greatly suffered from 
the conditions which were so adverse to foreign 
trade. The actual receipts for the year ending 
June 30, 1862, would probably fall twenty-five 
millions short of the estimates of the preceding 
summer. On the other hand, the expenditures 
had greatly increased, even far beyond the 
generous appropriations of the special session. 
The deficiency in appropriations would amount 
to nearly 1150,000,000, which, added to the dif- 
ference between the estimates of the revenue 
and the actual receipts, left an enormous sum 
of money to be raised in addition to the amounts 
provided for at the special session, in order to 
carry the country to June 30, 1862. 

The secretary also gave the estimates for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1863, for which j)ro- 
vision should be made at the session of Congress 
then about to open. These estimates showed 



THE LEGAL TENDER 159 

that the expenditures would amount to $475,- 
000,000, and the receipts to 895,000,000, leav- 
ing a deficiency of $380,000,000. From the 
report of the secretary it thus appeared that the 
December session of Congress would have to 
provide about 8600,000,000, either by loans or 
additional taxes. If a comparison were made 
on the basis of the wealth of the country, a 
corresponding amount in 1899 would be fully 
13,000,000,000. This estimate, too, was made 
while the country was upon a specie basis, and 
it was certain to be largely exceeded. Surely 
the financial outlook was appalling. 

I have thus endeavored to describe the situa- 
tion far enough to enable the exact character 
and the magnitude of the work of Congress and 
the special work of Stevens to be understood, 
and to contribute to a better knowledge of the 
legislation which followed and which made the 
second session of this Congress the most impor- 
tant from a financial standpoint that was ever 
held by any legislative body in the history of 
the world. 

The session opened on the first ]\Ionday in 
December, 1861. The treasury and the banks 
had not yet suspended specie payments, but that 
event was sufficiently portended by the black 
clouds which darkened the financial sky. Upon 
the motion of Stevens those portions of the 



160 THADDEUS STEVENS 

President's message which related to the finances 
and to the provision of additional revenue and 
to the ways and means for "supporting and 
meeting all public liabilities of the government " 
were referred to the Committee on Ways and 
Means. 

The work of the session had hardly seriously 
begun when the banks and the treasury sus- 
pended specie payments. This event was quickly 
followed by the bill reported from Stevens's 
committee for the issue of legal-tender notes. 
A debate followed which was memorable for its 
ability. The measure was violently opposed 
by Mr. Conkling and Mr. Morrill, as well as 
by the Democratic members. Stevens closed 
the debate. His speech is an excellent spe- 
cimen of his manner during the later period of 
his service in the House. He rigidly discarded 
ornament, aimed to express his ideas in the 
most clear and direct fashion, and, speaking as 
if he held rhetorical effort in contempt, he really 
exhibited a high literary form. In force of 
reasoning and in a lofty simplicity of style, 
whether one agrees with its argument or not, 
it is difficult to find its match among congres- 
sional speeches. 

He called the bill a "measure of necessity, 
not of choice." He would not willingly issue 
a legal -tender paper currency, or "depart from 



THE LEGAL TENDER 161 

that circulating medium which, by the common 
consent of civilized nations, forms the standard 
of value." But such a measure, when ren- 
dered necessary by emergency, should not excite 
alarm. Was the measure necessary? Buchanan 
had left a debt of 1100,000,000, and had also 
bequeathed a formidable rebellion. This made 
necessary the great loan authorized at the special 
session. The efforts to carry their subscrij^tion 
to this loan had broken the banks and compelled 
them to suspend specie payments. Only the 
day before they had managed to pay the last of 
the loan, and now, with nearly 1200,000,000 of 
floating debt, the treasury was without money. 
The expenses of the government were nearly 
12,000,000 each day. To carry the govern- 
ment to the end of the next fiscal year about 
1700,000,000 would have to be provided in ad- 
dition to the $350,000,000 already appropriated. 
How was this enormous sum to be raised? The 
obvious method, he declared, was to sell bonds. 
But the result of putting so large an amount upon 
the market would be greatly to depreciate their 
price ; and even then they could not be sold for 
coin, but payment would necessarily be made 
in the depreciated notes of the suspended banks. 
Taking the very lowest discount at which so 
large an issue of bonds would sell, it would 
require $1,500,000,000 of bonds to produce 



162 THADDEUS STEVENS 

sufficient currency to carry the government to 
the end of the next fiscal year, a sum that was 
"too frightful to be tolerated." Another course 
had been suggested, and that was to borrow 
money from the banks and pledge the bonds, 
with a liberal margin, as collateral for the loan. 
As it was not probable that the loan would be 
paid when due, the bonds "would be thrown 
into the market and sold for whatever the banks 
might choose to pay for them. The folly of this 
scheme needs no illustration." 

To the proposition to strike out the legal- 
tender clause and make the proposed notes re- 
ceivable for public dues, he replied that this 
would cause the notes to circulate at a ruinous 
discount. No notes not redeemable on demand, 
and not made a legal tender, "have ever been 
kept at par. Even those who could use them 
for taxes and duties would discredit them, that 
they might get them low." If soldiers, contrac- 
tors, and others were compelled to take them 
from the government, they would have to " sub- 
mit to a heavy shave before they could use 
them." He did not believe the national bank- 
ing project, suggested by the treasury, to be at 
all adequate to the emergency; and although he 
might favor it as a general system, he furnished 
in a sentence an argument which ever since that 
time has been the favorite argument against the 



THE LEGAL TENDER 163 

system. "To the banks I can see its advan- 
tage. They would have the whole benefit of 
the circulation without interest, and at the 
same time would draw interest on the govern- 
ment bonds." 

Having, then, as he thought, "shown the 
impossibility of carrying on the government in 
any other way," he would consider the objec- 
tions to the plan. He then argued most admi- 
rably, if not conclusively, that the legal tender 
would be constitutional. It was true, he said, 
that the power was nowhere expressly granted 
in the Constitution; but few of the acts which 
the government could perform were so speci- 
fied. "It would require a volume larger than 
the pandects of Justinian or the code of Na- 
poleon to make such enumeration." Every 
power necessary to carry out the granted powers 
was also granted. "If nothing could be done 
by Congress except what is enumerated in the 
Constitution, the government could not live a 
week." The express power to emit bills and 
the express prohibition against it were both 
considered in the convention which framed the 
Constitution. It was finally decided to omit 
both the express power and the prohibition, 
"leaving it to the exigencies of the times to 
determine its necessity." The right to emit 
bills had "for fifty years, by the common con- 



164 THADDEUS STEVENS 

sent of the nation, been practiced," and the 
power to make them legal tender was consist- 
ent with it. "He who admits our power to 
emit bills of credit, nowhere expressly author- 
ized by the Constitution, is a sharp and unrea- 
sonable doubter when he denies the power to 
make them legal tender." If Congress decided 
that the proposed law was necessary and conven- 
ient to "raise and support armies and navies, to 
borrow money, and to provide for the general 
welfare," it would be constitutional. 

Having thus supjjorted the constitutionality 
of the measure, he next sought to show that it 
was expedient. The necessity of the issue was 
admitted by all, but the objection was raised 
against making the notes money, that it would 
depreciate them. It was not easy to see "how 
notes issued without being made immediately 
payable in specie can be made any worse by 
making them legal tender." "Let him who is 
sharp enough to see it instruct me how notes 
that every man must take are worth less than 
the same notes that no man need take." As 
to the objection that the bill would impair the 
obligation of contracts, that prohibition did not 
exist against Congress, but against the States. 
This law, however, would impair no contract. 
"All contracts are made, not only with a view 
to present laws, but subject to the future legis- 



. THE LEGAL TENDER 166 

lation of the country." More than once the 
vahie of coin had been changed. Silver was 
at one time debased seven per cent, and made 
a legal tender. 

But it was said that the bill would inflate the 
currency and raise prices. "How do gentle- 
men expect that using the same amount of notes 
without the legal tender will inflate it less ? It 
will take the same amount of millions, with or 
without the legal tender, to carry on the war, 
except that the one would be below par and the 
other at par." The value of legal-tender notes 
depended on the amount issued, compared with 
the amount of business. The business of the 
coimtry would require 1150,000,000 more cur- 
rency than it now had. The bank notes were 
depreciated, and coin had disappeared from 
circulation. The legal tender would furnish a 
needed currency with which to buy government 
bonds, and the government, again the possessor 
of the notes, could again use them, and again 
they could be employed in the purchase of 
bonds. He believed that the ,1150,000,000 au- 
thorized by the bill would be all that would be 
required. 

He characterized the proposition of Mr. Ros- 
coe Conkling to issue seven-per-cent bonds, to 
be sold or exchanged for the currency of the 
banks of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 



166 THADDEUS STEVENS 

as lacking "every element of wise legislation." 
"Make a loan payable in irredeemable currency, 
and pay that in its depreciated condition to our 
contractors, soldiers, and creditors generally! 
The banks would issue imlimited amounts of 
what would become trash ! Was there ever 
such a temptation to swindle? If we are to 
use suspended notes to pay our expenses, why 
not use our own ? Are they not as safe as bank 
notes?" 

He then proceeded to ridicule the proposi- 
tion of the minority of the committee to issue 
interest-bearing currency notes, and pictured 
the shoemaker or laborer with his arithmetic, 
calculating the interest on the note he had held 
a week and wished to pay out. "This would 
be rather inconvenient on a frosty day." He 
recurred to the main argument, and said that 
the notes of the Bank of England had greatly 
depreciated during the Napoleonic wars, until 
their fall was arrested by practically making 
them a legal tender. He also cited the example 
of Prussia in favor of a national paper cur- 
rency. Yet the opponents of the bill had 
"shown all the contortions, if not the inspira- 
tions, of the sibyl, lest the government should 
make these notes a uniform currency, rather 
than leave them to be regulated by sharks and 
brokers." He declared that he looked upon 



THE LEGAL TENDER 167 

"the immediate passage of this bill as essential 
to the very existence of the government. Re- 
ject it, and the financial credit not only of the 
government but of all the great interests of the 
country will be prostrated." If the measure 
were to be defeated he should be glad to resign 
from the Committee on Ways and Means, and 
leave it to the opposition to pursue some other 
measure. 

The bill passed the House by a vote of 93 to 
59, and ultimately, with amendments presented 
in the Senate, it became a law. Before it finally 
passed, Stevens modified his statement that no 
further issue would be necessary, and that the 
notes would remain at par. He put the burden 
for his change of opinion upon the Senate 
amendments, which required the interest on the 
bonds to be paid in coin, and which conferred 
the legal-tender quality upon the notes already 
issued. He declared that the notes would be- 
come depreciated, and that issue after issue 
would be called for, "until our currency will 
become frightfully inflated." 

The legal-tender bill had no sooner become 
a law than the abuse to which that system of 
finance is liable began to show itself, and there 
were propositions to issue more notes. The 
leaders who were protesting in January, doubt- 
less with entire sincerity, that the ^150,000,000 



168 THADDEUS STEVENS 

provided by the bill would be sufficient, were 
in June of the same year asking for the pas- 
sage of another measure authorizing another 
like amount. It is only just to Stevens to re- 
call the modification of his opinion, which he 
based upon the Senate amendments. His state- 
ment of the effect of the amendment confer- 
ring the legal-tender quality upon notes already 
issued was not unreasonable. The amendment 
to which he most strongly objected was that 
which provided that the government should pay 
the interest on its notes and bonds in coin. By 
holding out a promise of coin payments, the 
requirement, it was urged, would have an oppo- 
site effect from that anticipated by Stevens and 
prevent a greater depreciation of the notes. He 
never ceased to recur to the objection to the 
end of his career. The promise of the ultimate 
payment of the principal of the bonds in coin 
would put them firmly upon that basis, but he 
argued with great force that, if coin had de- 
parted from circulation, and the government, 
or the importers upon whom it put the burden, 
were compelled to use legal-tender notes for the 
purchase of coin to pay the interest, the gold 
speculators would take advantage of the situa- 
tion, "corner" gold, and push up its price. 
The notes would therefore depreciate. But the 
Senate amendments could not certainly be held 



THE LEGAL TENDER 169 

responsible for the whole of the enormous in- 
crease of legal-tender notes. In one year from 
the time when the first step was taken, the legal - 
tender quality had been impressed upon more 
than $500,000,000 of paper. 

Whether the resort to legal-tender issues could 
have been averted is a question which cannot 
be confidently answered, even with the wisdom 
which follows the event by a third of a century. 
Had the high taxation been resorted to at the 
outset, had even $150,000,000 been raised the 
first year instead of a beggarly 850,000,000, had 
the secretary of the treasury refrained from the 
policy which sapped the coin reserves of the 
banks and compelled the suspension of specie 
payments by them and by the treasury as a 
necessary result, it is certain that the issue of 
legal tender could have been much longer de- 
layed, and it is even possible that it might 
have been avoided altogether. But when Con- 
gress was asked to authorize the first issue 
a great deal of the mischief had been done. 
The treasury and the banks had already sus- 
pended specie payments. We had been at war 
nearly a year and had raised very little by taxa- 
tion. Many millions were due to the 700,000 
soldiers and sailors who were fighting the battles 
of their country, and disaffection was beginning 
to appear among them; the last installment from 



170 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the sale of bonds to the banks had been dis- 
bursed, and with an empty treasury the secre- 
tary was each month called upon to pay bills 
almost equaling the total annual revenues of 
two years before. There were current demands 
upon the government that were overdue, amount- 
ing to nearly $200,000,000, and it had the alter- 
native of selling its bonds at a discount, not for 
coin, but for the depreciated bills of suspended 
banks. The people, too, were without a safe 
currency, and were exposed to the danger of a 
wild and irresponsible inflation by the issues of 
the non-specie-paying banks. It is an easy 
thing thirty-five years afterwards to say that 
the government made a mistake; but a great 
deal must be taken for granted, and it certainly 
is not easy to point out the superiority of the 
other plans, suggested for the difficulty, over 
that which was actually adopted. 

The men responsible for the measure were far 
from being advocates of fiat money. Indeed, 
Mr. Chase had done infinite damage in hurry- 
ing on the crisis by a too literal adherence to 
views of an opposite character. Before taking 
the final plunge he hesitated long, with the ap- 
parent purpose of having a measure pass with- 
out responsibility upon him, which he believed 
to be most necessary, but the principle of which 
he profoundly disliked. Stevens, Sumner, and 



THE LEGAL TENDER 171 

the other patriotic men who supported the bill, 
were most reluctant to take the step. But they 
were conscious that they were under the pressure 
of an overwhelming necessity, and if one does 
not conveniently forget some of the difficulties 
which surrounded them, he will find it difficult 
to impeach their wisdom. A bare statement of 
the case is enough to put to confusion the text- 
book statesmen who confidently condemn their 
action. A great civil war inevitably has a dis- 
astrous effect upon national credit. Before the 
rebellion the credit of the unbroken nation was 
low; yet a fragment of the nation was compelled 
in four years to raise nearly $4,000,000,000. 
If, under these circumstances, we had not de- 
parted from a specie basis, we should have ac- 
complished a feat for which history furnishes no 
parallel. The aggregate amount raised by loans 
and taxation by the French people during the 
wars of the Consulate and Empire did not 
greatly exceed $2,000,000,000. The people of 
the North raised a billion more money in four 
years than the united French nation had raised 
in fourteen, some fifty or sixty years earlier.^ 
The issue of legal-tender paper followed the 
suspension of coin payments as a logical conse- 
quence. With no coin in its vaults, what, it 
was pertinently asked, could the government 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, toI. i. p. 550. 



172 THADDEUS STEVENS 

pay to its creditors ? How could it force upon 
them a currency which they in turn could not 
force their creditors to take ? 

The departure from a coin basis greatly in- 
creased the cost of the war, but the amount of 
this increase is usually exaggerated. The great 
item in the expense was the billion and a quar- 
ter that was paid to the soldiers and sailors; 
and this item, very unjustly no doubt, remained 
the same, when they were paid in a depreciated 
currency. The chief effect of inflation upon 
the cost would be seen in the prices of supplies. 
But these were mainly of domestic production, 
and prices of such articles did not rise with the 
fluctuations of gold to any such degree as did 
the prices of articles purchased abroad. Un- 
doubtedly some hundreds of millions could have 
been saved, if the war could have been fought 
upon a gold basis; but it was out of the ques- 
tion to fight it on a gold basis at the time 
when Stevens advocated the first legal-tender 
bill. 

The practical alternative to the greenback at 
that time was a bank currency, which probably 
would have been more expensive than the legal 
tender. Vastly the greater cost of the green- 
backs has followed the war. They should have 
disappeared with the pressing necessity which 
called them into being. But it is not the fault 



THE LEGAL TENDER 173 

of those who believed in them for a great emer- 
gency that they have been permitted to remain 
to cost the people, in one way or another, prob- 
ably almost as great a sum as the entire money 
cost of suppressing the rebellion. 



CHAPTER X 
WAK REVENUE MEASURES 

The legal-tender notes directly extinguished 
several hundred millions of debt, but a much 
greater amount remained to be raised. This 
was done by the issue of bonds, and by current 
taxation. It would hardly be profitable to pre- 
sent in detail the different loan measures which 
were brought forward by the committee of which 
Stevens was chairman. It is sufficient to say 
that, including the loan of 8250,000,000, author- 
ized at the special session, loans of one form 
or another, not including the legal tender, were 
authorized and issued, during about four years, 
exceeding in amount 82,000,000,000. One im- 
portant instrument in distributing so vast a 
burden of debt among the people was the na- 
tional banking system, which Mr. Chase persist- 
ently urged, and which Congress finally adopted. 
The institutions thus created not only absorbed 
hundreds of millions of bonds to secure their 
note circulation, but in a single year more than 
three hundred and sixty millions were sold by 



WAR REVENUE MEASURES 175 

them to their customers.^ This indicates that, 
if Secretary Chase had protected the reserves 
of the banks, instead of destroying" them, dur- 
ing the first year of the war, and if he had 
also urged an immediate resort to high taxa- 
tion, the contest might have been fought to the 
end upon a specie basis. 

The policy of raising large amounts of money 
by taxation should have been applied much ear- 
lier, but it was rigidly put in force during the 
last two years of the struggle, and greatly re- 
lieved the strain upon the borrowing capacity 
of the people. There existed at the outset a 
belief, which Secretary Chase appeared to share, 
that the war would be of short duration, and 
that the cost of suppressing the rebellion should 
not be borne by taxation upon a portion of the 
people, but that, after peace had been secured, 
taxation to meet the cost of the war should be 
imposed upon the guilty and the innocent alike. 
Mr. Chase, in his first report, recommended that 
provision should be made by taxation for paying 
only the ordinary expenditures and the interest 
and sinking fund upon the debt. Even this re- 
commendation was not ungrudgingly carried out 
by Congress. Reference has already been made 
to the opposition which Stevens encountered in 
levying the direct tax of 820,000,000, and to 
1 Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 482. 



176 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the concessions whicli he was compelled to 
make in order to secure its passage. At the 
same session also the small tax upon coffee was 
violently opposed. No favor was shown to any 
departure from the old method, or to even a 
small tax which in ordinary times might promise 
to be unpopular. Many members of Congress 
were apparently not aroused to the fact that we 
were really in war, and they conducted their 
politics upon a peace basis. The taxation dur- 
ing the first year of the war produced barely 
sufficient to meet the ordinary peace expendi- 
tures. The entire revenues during the year 
ending June 30, 1862, including the produce of 
the so-called war revenue measures, amounted 
to about $2.50 for each one of the population, 
which is barely half the annual rate of taxation 
since the war. 

At the opening of the December session of 
1861 it had become apparent that we were in- 
volved in a war of tremendous magnitude ; 
and it should have been apparent also that 
the weakened credit of the government was 
unequal to the task of borrowing the enormous 
sums that were needed, and that a system of 
high taxation should immediately be put in 
force. But the secretary was slow in learning 
the necessary lesson, and his mind was filled 
with schemes for new loans. He still adhered 



WAR REVENUE MEASURES 177 

to the policy which he had announced in July : 
that provision should be made by taxation "for 
ordinary expenditures, for prompt joayment of 
interest on the public debt existing and author- 
ized, and for the gradual extinction of the 
principal." This he declared to be "indispen- 
sable to a sound system of finance." It was 
unfortunate that he did not comprehend at that 
time that it was also indispensable to a sound 
system of finance that, when so many of the 
young men of the country were fighting at the 
front for only nominal pay, those at home should 
be called on to make the slight sacrifice which 
they were very willing to make, and pay sub- 
stantial taxes to carry on the war. By the issue 
of war bonds the interest charges of the govern- 
ment had been increased. To meet the expense 
which the secretary thought should be met from 
current revenues, he recommended that direct 
taxation be increased to 150,000,000, so that the 
entire annual revenue should be 190,000,000. 
In making this recommendation he declared 
that he was "aware that the sum is large," but 
he felt "that he must not shrink from a plain 
statement of the actual necessities of the situa- 
tion." Four years later, when the people were 
so much the more exhausted by war, they raised 
nearly $500,000,000 in a single year as against 
the paltry sum of $90,000,000, which the secre- 



178 THADDEUS STEVENS 

tary was now recommending with apologies for 
its magnitude. 

But the leaders in Congress were awake to 
the necessity of raising substantial amounts by 
taxation. Barely a month after Mr. Chase 
made his recommendation, Stevens and his asso- 
ciates upon the Committee on Ways and Means 
reported, and the House almost unanimously 
passed, a resolution declaring the purpose of 
Congress to provide an annual revenue of not 
less than 8150,000,000. The House had not 
yet mastered the art of estimating the revenues 
to be produced by new taxes in time of war, and 
its first efforts at real war taxation were less 
productive than it intended. But the policy 
had been determined upon, and measure fol- 
lowed measure from Stevens's committee with 
a rapidity that proved their fixed intention of 
carrying it out. The same members who had 
opposed the taxes upon tea, coffee and sugar in 
July, were willing in December to pass almost 
without debate a further increase of several mil- 
lions in these taxes. An internal revenue bill 
was passed which, with subsequent amendments, 
covered almost the entire field of industry and 
consumption. 

These measures were interesting, not so much 
from any principle of taxation which they illus- 
trated, as from the ingenuity of Stevens and 



I 



WAR REVENUE MEASURES 179 

his colleagues in discerning and exhausting al- 
most every source of revenue. The great bur- 
den of the taxes fell upon malt and spirituous 
liquors. Stamps were required upon the most 
minute as well as the most important transac- 
tions of business. The butcher was required 
to pay a license fee, and in addition a certain 
sum for every beef or hog or sheep that he 
killed. The dealer who sold him the animals 
he slaughtered had also to pay a tax. A license 
was required for almost every imaginable call- 
ing and trade. Horse-dealers and peddlers, jug- 
glers and lawyers, doctors and soapmakers, had 
each to contribute a fixed sum to the govern- 
ment. The dentist was required to pay ten 
dollars before he could pull a tooth, and the 
eating-house keeper a like sum before he could 
sell a meal. The manufacturer was compelled 
to pay a license fee and in addition a specific or 
an ad valorem tax upon the goods he made. A 
comprehensive idea of the great variety of pur- 
suits and avocations which were followed in this 
country in 1862 can be gained by reading the 
internal revenue law. If, after paying the mul- 
titude of general and special taxes, one was for- 
tunate enough to have more than 8600 of annual 
income left, he was asked to pay three per cent 
to the government, and, if the surplus amounted 
to 110,000, ten per cent. At the end of the 



180 THADDEUS STEVENS 

war the internal taxes were producing revenue 
at the rate of more than $300,000,000 a year. 
The tariff duties were revised and increased in 
number and amount until they annually brought 
to the treasury $180,000,000. 

The practical instruments, then, for raising 
the fabulous amounts needed to prosecute the 
war were the high taxation measures, the enor- 
mous issues of loans, and the resort to legal- 
tender. Had the first of these expedients been 
more promptly adopted and a different policy 
pursued with regard to the banks in 1861, it 
might not have been necessary, as I have said, 
to resort to the third expedient. Yet what other 
men have ever done so weU? With national 
credit almost destroyed, with property values 
greatly lessened, and with half the men of mili- 
tary age in the field in a civil war, 20,000,000 
of people were called upon in four j'^ears to 
meet an expenditure of $3,500,000,000, and 
they showed themselves able to respond to the 
gigantic demand. The achievement not only 
stands without a parallel, but it stands unap- 
proached. The credit was not chiefly due to 
leadership. What was demanded of the lead- 
ers was the ability to comprehend and the bold- 
ness to call into play the splendid capacity and 
the fervent patriotism of the people. But the 
one man who is as much entitled as any other, 



WAR REVENUE MEASURES 181 

with the exception of the secretary of the trea- 
sury, to the glory of these financial achieve- 
ments was the chairman of the Committee on 
Ways and Means and the leader of the House 
of Eepresentatives. 



CHAPTER XI 

WAR LEGISLATION 

The activity of Stevens was by no means 
confined to providing the means of carrying on 
the war and to supervising the appropriation 
bills. When any measure involving an impor- 
tant policy was before, the House, he was pretty 
sure to be heard, and he himself presented a 
large number of important measures aside from 
those which were within the province of his 
committee. An important and ingenious mea- 
sure was his bill to repeal the laws establishing 
Southern ports of entry. One of the great in- 
strumentalities in bringing the war to an end 
was the destruction of the commerce between 
the Southern Confederacy and foreign nations. 

The Administration, at the very threshold of 
the war, recognized the importance of prevent- 
ing the South from sending abroad the vast 
quantities of cotton and other produce which 
could be raised by slaves without detracting 
from the fighting strength, and exchanging 
these for supplies and munitions of war. If 



WAR LEGISLATION 183 

the South could have had an uninterrupted 
commerce, she would have possessed a financial 
strength scarcely surpassed by that of the North. 
She had little manufacturing, and could make 
few of the articles which she might need to 
thoroughly equip her armies. But the labor of 
her slaves could be employed as well in war as 
in peace upon her plantations and cotton-fields, 
and if the produce of their toil could be 
exchanged for the products of the much more 
highly skilled labor of other nations, the slave 
would become a direct and important factor in 
winning the battle against his own freedom. 
The obvious thing for the North to do was to 
seal up the ports of the South. This could be 
accomplished by a blockade, but the disadvan- 
tage of that method was that its proclamation 
would involve a species of official recognition 
of the Confederacy, and it would also entail 
on us the obligation to make it effective. But 
if not by a blockade, how could the object be 
attained ? 

Stevens proposed to repeal the laws creating 
Southern ports of entry, and with remarkable 
foresight he reported a bill, before Lincoln was 
inaugurated, having that object in view. But 
he said in debate nearly a year afterwards that 
"there were too many peace conventions and 
border-state conferences, and too much amiable 



184 THADDEUS STEVENS 

timidity in this House to allow it to pass — it 
might offend the rebels." ^ 

He introduced it again in the following Con- 
gress, and supported it in a speech in which he 
declared that the government had suffered seri- 
ous disadvantages because the bill had not been 
passed. We had been forced into a false posi- 
tion, he said, by closing our ports with a block- 
ade, a proceeding which applied only to opera- 
tions against a foreign nation, and involved an 
admission of the independent existence of the 
people blockaded. If a blockade were pro- 
claimed, foreign powers had the right to ques- 
tion its efficiency. "Evading it, when imper- 
fectly maintained, is legitimate trade." But a 
nation had a right to close its own ports, and 
that right other nations could not disregard. 
Harbors which were not ports of entry did not 
require a blockade to exclude commerce. " The 
law blockades them. Respect for that law is 
safer than fleets." The Confederate States 
might indeed create ports of entry, but foreign 
nations could not recognize these ports without 
recognizing also the independence of the Con- 
federacy, and that would be an act of war. 

He admitted that necessity for cotton was so 
vital to the industrial demands of England that 
she would do everything possible to keep open 

^ See Congressional Globe, December 30, 1861, p. 180. 



WAR LEGISLATION 185 

the Southern ports. She had "made war upon 
the most innocent people of the world to compel 
them to take her opium," and had forced them at 
the mouth of the cannon to swallow $80,000,000 
worth of the poison per annum. But if we 
should adopt a brave policy we should get the 
advantage of the anti -slavery feeling in Eng- 
land, which "among the masses is more intense 
than the greed for cotton." We ought to an- 
nounce our purpose to abolish slavery, which 
"the whole civilized world now abhors." Our 
course had repelled sympathy, because the war 
had "virtually been made to rivet still stronger 
the chains of human bondage." 

When Stevens delivered this speech it was 
too late to put his plan into effective execution, 
and he probably made it to justify his position. 
The President had, on the 19th of the preceding 
April, issued his proclamation declaring the 
blockade of Southern ports "in pursuance of 
the laws of the United States and the law of 
nations," and had declared that a competent 
force would be raised to prevent the entrance 
and departure of vessels. Whatever the dis- 
advantages of a blockade, they had already 
been incurred even at the special session, when 
an important feature of the plan of Stevens 
was incorporated in one of the first bills to be- 
come a law.i But it is obvious that the method 
1 Acts of 37th Congress, chap. 3. 



186 THADDEUS STEVENS 

proposed by Stevens was not free from serious 
objections. The friendship of foreign nations 
would have been subjected to a severe test when 
the legal difficulties which the plan imposed 
could be evaded by the recognition of independ- 
ence. At any rate they would very likely have 
refused to regard it after they recognized the 
South as a belligerent power. 

Stevens was ready to support the enormous 
appropriations asked by the administration, 
but he did not hesitate to criticise the lack of 
energy and effectiveness shown during the first 
year of the war, and he urged the strictest 
economy in the expenditure of money. Very 
likely his strictures were a little sharper on 
account of his hostility to his fellow Pennsyl- 
vanian, the secretary of war, and to the fact 
that Lincoln moved too slowly for him in the 
direction of emancipation. 

In the discussion of a bill to raise a special 
volunteer force for the protection of Kentucky 
he uttered a warning note, and declared that 
the continued increase of expense meant that 
the "finances not only of the government, but 
of the whole country must give way, and the 
people will be involved in one general bank- 
ruptcy and ruin." He said that the President's 
message had given "a rose-colored view of the 
condition of affairs in Kentucky." If, how- 



WAR LEGISLATION 187 

ever, that State needed special protection, a 
force should be sent from our existing armies. 
"I understand there are 660,000 men under 
arms somewhere," he said. "I do not know 
where they are. I do not see their footsteps. 
... I know they are lying about somewhere, 
where they can very well be spared. They are 
doing nothing. . . . But for Heaven's sake do 
not let us go on piling mountains upon moun- 
tains of debt and taxation, until the nation 
itself is finally destroyed in the operations of 
this war." 

The war had not proceeded far before it was 
seen that the founders of the Constitution had 
not contemplated a great civil war, and had not 
made provision for it. The members were not 
few in number who endeavored at each step to 
justify their action under the Constitution by 
a daring construction of that instrument, and 
by drawing a meaning from its provisions of 
which its framers never dreamed. Stevens, 
however, did not permit himself to be disturbed 
by any such scruples, or to make the Constitu- 
tion ridiculous by forced and unnatural con- 
structions. His mind clearly perceived the fact 
that war existed. Whatever fictions might be 
invented to prove that the seceding States were 
in the Union, we were actually engaged in a 
war for seK-preservation, a civil war of greater 



188 THADDEUS STEVENS 

magnitude than had ever been witnessed. He 
regarded the Constitution as practically set 
aside in the seceding States, and wasted no 
ingenuity in trying to preserve the constitu- 
tional rights of those he was making every 
effort to destroy. Anything that would main- 
tain the national authority, conquer its enemies, 
and, whenever it might be done, whether in the 
far or near future, restore the ultimate sway 
of the Constitution, was in his judgment the 
wisest policy to pursue. 

A good illustration of his course upon consti- 
tutional questions arising within the area of the 
rebellion is found in his treatment of the bill 
for the admission of West Virginia as a State. 
The people of that portion of Virginia within 
the limits of the present State of West Virginia 
were opposed to secession. Like the inhabit- 
ants of the other mountainous regions of the 
South, they remained loyal to the Union. 
Their location by the side of the great free 
States of Pennsylvania and Ohio, their instinc- 
tive hostility to slavery, and the character of 
their industries, which demanded free rather 
than slave labor, naturally led them to sympa- 
thize with the Northern side of the controversy. 
When the parent State seceded they at once 
formed a state government, and chose state 
officers. They elected senators and representa- 



WAR LEGISLATION 189 

tives to Congress, who were admitted to their 
seats. But the patent absurdity of so small a 
fraction of the people of Virginia claiming to 
be the whole State was recognized from the out- 
set, and it was determined to apply for admis- 
sion to the Union as a separate State. The 
Constitution prohibited the formation of a new 
State within the jurisdiction of an existing 
State without the consent of the legislature of 
the State itself as well as of Congress. The 
requisite consent therefore to the dismember- 
ment of the State could not be obtained except 
upon the extreme theory that the legislature 
chosen by the people of West Virginia was the 
legislature of Virginia. The war and the elastic 
construction of the Constitution, which it pro- 
duced, had not yet proceeded sufficiently far 
for Congress to accept so extravagant a propo- 
sition, and the subject was postponed until the 
December session of 1862. By that time dis- 
tinguished representatives were prepared to 
argue that the legislature chosen by the inhabi- 
tants of West Virginia was the legislature of 
Virginia, and that it could constitutionally con- 
sent to the formation of the new State. Mr. 
Dawes tersely stated the case when he said: 
"Nobody has given his consent to the division 
of the State of Virginia and the erection of a 
new State who does not reside in the new State 



190 THADDEUS STEVENS 

itself." In other words, the people of the pro- 
posed new State gave the consent of the old 
State that it might be divided. 

Stevens was willing to admit West Virignia, 
but his practical mind quickly rejected the fine- 
spun arguments to support the constitutionality 
of the proceeding. He began a speech upon the 
bill by declaring that he was not to be "under- 
stood as being deluded by the idea that we are 
admitting this State in pursuance of any pro- 
vision of the Constitution." The constitutional 
argument was advanced by those who honestly 
held an erroneous opinion, or "who desire to 
justify by a forced construction an act which 
they have predetermined to do." In his judg- 
ment it was mockery to say that the legisla- 
ture of Virginia had given its consent. Only 
200,000 people out of a million and a quarter 
had chosen this legislature, while at the same 
time the State had a regularly organized gov- 
ernment, which was the undeniable choice of the 
majority of its people and which had gone into 
rebellion. They were traitors undoubtedly, but 
they were still the State of Virginia. A very 
small number of respectable people in West 
Virginia had assembled, disapproved of the 
action of the State, and "with the utmost self- 
complacency called themselves Virginia." "Now 
is it not ridiculous . . . ? The State of Vir- 



WAE LEGISLATION 191 

ginia has never therefore given its consent to 
this separation of the State. According to my 
principles operating at the present time, I can 
vote for its admission without any compunc- 
tions of conscience, but with some doubts about 
the policy of it." 

He then announced his views concerning the 
legal status of the rebellious States, and these 
proved to be the principles upon which his pol- 
icy of reconstruction was afterwards based, and 
which were accepted in substance by the nation. 
"This and other States have declared that they 
are no longer members of this Union — and have 
raised and organized an army and a power which 
the governments of Europe have recognized as a 
belligerent power." We ourselves, he declared, 
had unfortunately recognized them by declaring 
a blockade. We blockade an enemy's ports. 
We cannot blockade our own. We should 
have repealed the law creating these ports of 
entry. The Confederate States, therefore, were 
a power, and they became subject to all the laws 
of war. The Constitution had not the least 
effect upon them. It was idle to say that the 
obligations of an instrument were "binding upon 
one party while they are repudiated by the other. 
It is one of the principles of law universal . . . 
that obligations personal or national must, in 
order to be binding, be mutual and be equally 



192 THADDEUS STEVENS 

acknowledged and admitted by all parties. . . . 
Hence I hold that none of the States now in 
rebellion are entitled to the protection of the 
Constitution." Where, he asked, did Lincoln 
find any warrant in the Constitution for the ap- 
pointment of military governors? "If he must 
look there alone for authority, then all these 
acts are flagrant usurpations." Stevens here 
boldly and clearly announced the principle which 
was hostile to the policy afterwards originated by 
Lincoln and indorsed by Johnson, and which, 
after a contest hardly less memorable than that 
over slavery itself, and intimately connected 
with it, was destined to prevail and to prescribe 
the terms upon which the seceding States were 
restored to the Union. Even in this speech he 
foreshadowed his opposition to Lincoln's recon- 
struction policy, by declaring with a good deal 
of asperity that, "while in a great majority of 
instances in the rebel States he [the President] 
has had but little regard to the Constitution, he 
has upheld it in only one," referring to the 
policy of confiscation. 

While Stevens regarded the seceding States 
as outside of the Constitution, he jealously up- 
held that instrument within the sphere of the 
authority of the national government. Mr. 
Roscoe Conkling presented a resolution, calling 
upon the secretary of war for information as to 



WAR LEGISLATION 193 

the responsibility for the disaster at Ball's Bluff, 
where, through a gross blunder, a detachment 
of our troops had been moved across the Po- 
tomac under most adverse conditions, and nearly 
a thousand of them had been lost. The secre- 
tary had replied that no inquiry to fix the re- 
sponsibility had been held, because in the opinion 
of the general-in-chief it would be "injurious to 
the public service." Mr. Conkling introduced 
a second resolution, and supported it with a 
speech which excited a heated debate. The 
Constitution was, as usual, brought into the 
discussion. It was declared to be a violation 
of that instrument for the House to meddle with 
a military question of the character presented 
by the resolution. The President was made 
the commander-in-chief of the armies, and the 
question came within his jurisdiction, and was 
not an affair for the House. Stevens did not 
agree with this view of the case, and said that 
it had no foundation in the Constitution. The 
power to declare war, to raise armies, and to 
vote supplies was in Congress. "Has it come 
to that," he asked, "that this body is a mere 
automaton to register the decrees of another 
power ? ... It is the doctrine of despotism, better 
becoming that empire which they are attempt- 
ing to establish in the South." The House 
passed the resolution, but the second reply of 



194 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the secretary contained no more information 
upon the question of responsibility than the 
first. 

The bill presented to the House by Stevens, 
to indemnify the President and others for the 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, met 
with determined opposition. The President 
regarded it as a military necessity to suspend 
the writ in the case of many persons who had 
been arrested on the charge of aiding the rebel- 
lion. It was obviously impossible to conduct 
the war in the courts or according to the rules 
of law. If an officer of the army had caused 
the arrest of a spy or of persons in a secret 
consj^iracy against the government, it would 
not merely have been manifestly detrimental to 
take him from his post of duty, but he could 
not in many cases make without injury the dis- 
closures which a judicial inquiry would involve. 
The suspension of the writ in time of war was 
clearly authorized by the Constitution. But 
what power could suspend the writ ? The Presi- 
dent was advised by his cabinet that he could 
do it. It was claimed, on the other hand, that 
the suspension of a writ so vital to individual 
liberty was not a mere executive act, but that, 
if Congress were in session, its suspension must 
first be sanctioned by that body. If the sus- 
pension had not been legal the executive ofiicers 



WAR LEGISLATION 195 

might be liable to heavy civil damages. It was 
also most important to the prosecution o£ the 
war that the writ should be suspended. Stevens 
proposed to settle all doubts by indemnifying 
the executive officers for arrests already made, 
and giving to the President authority to suspend 
the writ during the continuance of the rebellion. 
He had carefully studied the English precedents 
for the somewhat technical portion of the bill 
relating to the indemnity, and was able to an- 
swer all objections. He secured its passage in 
a summary fashion and with very little debate ; 
for when the opposition objected to assigning 
the discussion for some future day he abruptly 
demanded the previous question. 

One of the acts of the thirty-seventh Congress 
which suffered a great deal of unpopularity was 
the act for "enrolling and calling out the na- 
tional forces." In some portions of the North 
the number of those who were willing to volun- 
teer had been exhausted. The conscription act 
at one step provided for drafting into the ser- 
vice, with a few exceptions, all the able-bodied 
men of military age in the country, or as many of 
them as the President should see fit to call out. 
The measure was the occasion for a prolonged 
and exciting debate, which, as party lines were 
closely drawn, took on the most partisan char- 
acter. Some members objected to the drastic 



196 THADDEUS STEVENS 

features of the bill, which armed provost mar- 
shals with the power to arrest for "treason- 
able practices." Of course, in the judgment of 
others, it violated the Constitution. There was 
a great deal of hot declamation to the effect that 
the bill would completely destroy the liberty and 
happiness of the people. Mr. Vallandigham 
distinguished himself by the violence of his de- 
nunciation of the bill, and by a bitter attack 
upon the President. Stevens was not at all dis- 
inclined to take part in a partisan debate, and 
the contribution which he made to the discus- 
sion affords a very good example of his style of 
partisan speaking in the House. We should, he 
said, have had sufficient volunteers had the Dem- 
ocrats not done all in their power to persuade 
men not to enlist. They desired to keep Demo- 
crats at home in order that they might carry the 
elections. Their policy had succeeded, he said, 
in some districts, as the returns of the last elec- 
tion showed. He admitted that many loyal 
Democrats had volunteered, but many also had 
been dissuaded. To prove this statement, he said 
that he would read from a speech of Mr. Vallan- 
digham, in which the latter said: "The day 
has gone by when a war for the restoration of 
the Union can by any possibility be successful," 
and added that, if the war continued and no 
relenting spirit was shown, the rebels ought to 



WAR LEGISLATION 197 

be induced to invade the North. He had also 
asked in the same speech : " Will you send your 
sons again to the battlefield? Shall they be 
conscripted to carry on this war for two years 
more and for the negro? " 

Vallandigham interrupted Stevens at this point 
to make a correction in the report of his speech. 
Stevens replied, "I will strike that out. The 
other is at least first cousin to it. The whole 
of it, if spoken anywhere else than under this 
government, would come very near to ' treason- 
able practices, ' and therefore I intend to strike 
out that expression, for the partition between 
treason and treasonable practices, and between 
treasonable practices and the sentiments of that 
speech, is so very thin that any deputy provost 
marshal not skilled in these nice distinctions 
would be very likely to do great injustice by 
reporting the gentleman. (Laughter.) " ^ He 
then noticed the charge that we were not suc- 
ceeding in the war because McClellan had been 
dismissed. He affected a reluctance to speak 
about McClellan, which, of course, he professed 
to do only under compulsion. Some idea of the 
character of his comments upon the less suc- 
cessful of McClellan 's operations may be found 
from what he said about his important victory 
at Antietam. The President had ordered the 

1 Congressional Globe, February 24, 1863. 



198 THADDEUS STEVENS 

general to pursue the enemy. "He started after 
them with an army of 120,000 men before him, 
and marched that army at the rapid rate of six 
miles a day until they stopped and he came up 
with them. (Laughter.) He then fought the 
battle of Antietam. It was a quasi victory, but 
notwithstanding that, while the enemy were in 
sight of the river, and while he was within can- 
non-shot of the enemy, he suffered them all to 
cross the river, which was done by them deliber- 
ately and successfully to the last man and the 
last ambulance." The conscription bill finally 
passed by a vote of nearly three to one, and 
thus the first Congress which sat during the war 
voted "the last man," as it had already shown 
its willingness to appropriate "the last dollar." 
One of the "war measures " adopted by Con- 
gress to suppress the rebellion was the confisca- 
tion of the property of the rebels. I have al- 
luded to the act passed at the July session of 
1861, which undertook to deal principally with 
the cases of slaves working upon forts and 
otherwise employed in the military service of 
the Confederacy. That was a mild enactment. 
As the war progressed, a great variety of bills, 
some of them of the most extreme character, 
were introduced. The action of the Confeder- 
ate government in confiscating the property of 
"alien enemies," and the rigid manner in which 



WAR LEGISLATION 199 

it was enforced, were not without their effect 
upon Congress. This act was employed, not 
only against citizens of the North, but also 
against subjects of Great Britain and other 
neutral nations.^ 

Many harsh measures of reprisal were pro- 
posed in both Houses, and finally one of them, 
which seemed moderate only when compared 
with the others, was passed and received the 
reluctant approval of the President. Its chief 
features were the discretion which it gave to 
the court to impose the death sentence or a fine 
and imprisonment for the crime of treason; the 
power it conferred on the President to seize the 
estates of the military and the principal civil 
officers of the Confederacy; and the provision 
that all slaves of persons who should thereafter 
be engaged in rebellion, escaping or coming 
within the control of the forces of the United 
States, should be deemed captives and be "for- 
ever free." 

The measure was, in fact, rendered somewhat 
ineffective by the passage of a resolution which 
Lincoln exacted as a condition to his signing it, 
and it does not appear to have been put into 
actual operation with any severity. This reso- 
lution did not give satisfaction to the advocates 
of confiscation, and an effort was subsequently 
^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, p. 349. 



200 THADDEUS STEVENS 

made to amend it. It could safely be taken for 
granted that Stevens would support confiscation, 
especially of slave property, but he made use 
of the occasion chiefly for the purpose of again 
declaring his opinions upon the constitutional 
relations of the seceding States to the Union. 
This was a subject apparently always before his 
mind. In a speech which dealt very slightly 
with confiscation he ridiculed the claim that the 
rebel States were still in the Union, and that 
'whenever our "wayward sisters choose to aban- 
don their frivolities and present themselves at 
the door of the Union ... we must receive 
them with open arms." If those States were in 
the Union he could see no reason why they 
should not elect the next President of the United 
States and senators and representatives to Con- 
gress. If that claim were correct, "then the 
rebel States, after having been conquered and 
reduced to utter helplessness through the ex- 
penditure of many billions of money and the 
shedding of oceans of loyal blood, may lay 
down their arms, which they can no longer 

' wield, claim to be legitimate members of the 
Union, . . . retain all their lands and posses- 

^^sions, and leave the loyal States burdened with 
an immense debt, with no indemnity for their 
sufferings and damages and with no security for 
the future." 



WAR LEGISLATION 201 

He then put the question whether the struggle 
was to be regarded as a "public war " under the 
rules of civilized warfare, or "only a domestic 
insurrection, to be suppressed by criminal prose- 
cution before the courts of the country?" If 
it was an insurrection, then the insurgents had 
a right to "the protection of the Constitution 
and municipal laws." If it was a public war, 
"then they are subject to the laws of war- 
alone." He then cited Vattel to show that, 
when a republic was broken into two armed 
factions, "this is called civil war;" that, al- 
though a sovereign might call all who resisted 
him rebels, yet if they had strength enough to" 
oblige him to carry on war according to the 
established rules he must submit to the use of 
the term civil war, and that in such a case the 
combatants " stand in precisely the same predica- 
ment as two nations who engage in a contest." 
Could any one, he asked, deny to a contest of 
the magnitude of the rebellion the term "civil 
war"? The powers of Europe had recognized 
the Southern States as belligerents. What was 
even more conclusive, "with unfortunate haste 
we blockaded their ports," and thereby our- 
selves acknowledged their belligerency. We 
"had treated their captive soldiers as prisoners 
of war," exchanged prisoners, and sent flags of 
truce. "This is not the usage awarded to an 



202 THADDEUS STEVENS 

unorganized banditti." If public war existed, 
he said, then it was clear that no compacts, 
laws, and paper obligations could be relied upon 
by the South against the North. This argu- 
ment was in entire harmony with that which he 
made soon after the war began and to which 
he adhered to the end. He was unquestionably 
a great lawyer. It is impossible to read his 
speeches upon questions of a legal character 
and not appreciate the grounds for the tribute, 
said to have been paid him by another great 
lawyer and a political foe. Judge Jeremiah S. 
Black, that at the time of his death he had no 
equal as a lawyer at the American bar.^ 

Being the thorough lawyer that he was, he 
detected at the very outset the inevitable legal 
question which would come with the ultimate 
victory of the North. He investigated it, 
weighed it most carefully, and when he had 
once reached his conclusion he did not deviate 
from it by a hair; it remained thereafter as 
binding upon his mind as a decision of the 
Supreme Court, and far more so than such a 
decision which did not accord with his judg- 
ment. There was no partisanship about it, be- 
cause his party had at the time no opinion upon 
the question. Indeed that party had harbored 
the loose generalization, which had become a 

1 The Green Bag, vol. iii. p. 260. 



WAR LEGISLATION 203 

sort of cant, that the seceding States were in 
the Union, and it received his opinion at the 
outset with a species of horror. He was called 
radical and in advance of his party. Doubtless 
he was radical upon many propositions, but he 
was an apparent radical upon this question only 
because he studied and decided it first. It was 
not with him essentially a question of policy. 
It was almost purely a question of law. When 
other men came seriously to look into the pro- 
blem most of them agreed with him, and ulti- 
mately the nation adopted his position. 

The views of Stevens grew constantly more 
radical upon the question of confiscation, and 
he urged it both as a species of indemnity and 
as a punishment. He did not, however, believe 
in bloody penalties. While a member of the 
Pennsylvania legislature he had strongly opposed 
capital punishment, and he did not desire to 
apply it against the Confederates; but he would 
have been little constrained by considerations of 
mercy when it came to the infliction of pecu- 
niary penalties. 

Notwithstanding the great expense of the war 
Stevens appreciated the political and commer- 
cial advantage to the country of incurring new 
debts to provide for the construction of the 
Pacific railroads, and he took charge in the 
House of one at least of those great measures. 



204 THADDEUS STEVENS 

But lie was discriminating in his support of 
public improvements and also of bills which 
disguised under a military title some formidable 
design upon the treasury. Among measures of 
the latter sort was one of which the patriotic 
title imported that it was designed to furnish 
a waterway "for the passage of armed and 
naval vessels from the Mississippi River to 
Lake Michigan." Stevens fought this measure 
successfuUy with the weapon of ridicule. He 
claimed that, as the Illinois River had very little 
depth of water, a connection between it and the 
lake would drain the latter and leave nothing 
but dry land. The war, which gentlemen favor- 
ing the bill were to have with Great Britain, 
"was to come off at the farthest in ninety 
days," and the canal through which our war 
vessels were to pass could not be finished in less 
than five years ; and then, even if our gunboats 
could be brought to Chicago, a slight obstacle 
still remained to getting them into Lake On- 
tario, as it was necessary to run Niagara Falls, 
"which is said to be a little perilous in the 
spring of the year." No one could have been 
more relentlessly hostile to the schemes of those 
designing patriots, who always follow in the 
wake of war. 

He was opposed to the policy of paying inter- 
est on the national debt in coin. He believed, 



WAR LEGISLATION 205 

during the war at least, that the principal of 
the bonds should be payable in coin, if the term 
for which they were to run should continue for 
a considerable time beyond the probable termi- 
nation of the war, although at a later period he 
protested against paying in coin those bonds 
which according to their terms were payable in 
money ; such a proceeding he termed " a swindle 
upon the taxpayers of the country." But his 
position during the war was that a general sus- 
pension of specie payments would cause gold to 
become an object of speculation, and that the 
government would have to submit to the exac- 
tions of the "gold room" in order to get the 
great quantity needed to meet its interest charge ; 
and that, if it collected its customs duties in 
gold, the burden would only be shifted upon the 
importers, with the result in both cases of arti- 
ficially putting up the price of gold as measured 
in greenbacks. 

So late as the beginning of the last year of 
the war he again urged the adoption of his 
policy, making "one more effort," as he said, 
"probably the last I shall ever make upon this 
subject, for the purpose of arresting what I be- 
lieve to be the rapid downward course to abso- 
lute ruin of our system of currency." ^ He was 
most tenacious of his belief upon this subject, 
1 Cong. Globe, June 23, 1864. 



206 THADDEUS STEVENS 

as indeed he was upon all others. He reiter- 
ated the view which he had expressed in the 
House soon after the suspension of specie pay- 
ments. "I thought so from the first," he de- 
clared, "although it looks like tautology to 
repeat it every time when this question comes 
up." He pointed to the high price of gold, and 
consequently the high price of everything, as 
a vindication of his prophecy made more than 
'two years before. "All our financial troubles," 
he said, "arise from the extraordinary demand 
for gold, when gold is not the currency of the 
country." When specie payments had been 
suspended he thought that the suspension should 
have been general and every industry and in- 
terest should have stood together, of course 
with the ultimate purpose to resume coin pay- 
ments and with the hope of the "better and 
happier times when coin will be the currency 
of the country." If his plan was not adopted 
of making the principal of the bonds payable in 
coin and the interest in lawful money, he de- 
clared that gold was likely to go to 300 per cent. 
He hoped that he might prove a worse prophet 
than he had already been shown to be in regard 
to the same subject, but he had intended to 
paint the results in mild colors. 

The House did not accept his policy, but 
whether the substantial fulfillment of his predic- 



WAR LEGISLATION 207 

tion vindicated his wisdom must remain a matter 
of conjecture. If we exclude the effect of spec- 
ulation, there would appear to be no adequate 
reason, when the certainty of victory had become 
apparent, why the credit of the national govern- 
ment, as shown by the value of its currency in 
the purchase of gold, should have been barely a 
third as high as in the dark days of January, 
1862. Its debt had indeed greatly increased; 
but, judged according to the standard of wealth 
and population, it still remained smaller than 
that of European nations which enjoyed a high 
credit. 

Stevens was conservative in his financial views 
at the outbreak of the war, but he ceased to be 
orthodox before it closed. There is much in his 
later speeches to give comfort to the advocate of 
fiat money. The action of the legislative depart- 
ment was so often invoked to create money, and 
interfere with the natural laws of trade, that it 
was resorted to with constantly increasing fre- 
quency. He apparently came to have faith in 
the efficacy of legal nostrums, though his own 
experience should have taught him the danger 
of this course. Having aided in creating an 
enormous premium on gold by repeated issues of 
paper money, Congress chose to find the cause 
of that, for which it could fairly claim a large 
measure of responsibility, in the "gold room." 



208 THADDEUS STEVENS 

It accordingly applied a legislative remedy to 
the evil, and passed a rigid law restricting the 
transactions that could be made in gold. This 
extraordinary piece of legislation bore a striking 
resemblance in principle to some of the laws 
of the French Revolution. Although Stevens 
presented a gold bill to the House from his 
committee, he was probably no more responsible 
than many of the other members who supported 
the legislation. It had no more earnest advo- 
cate than Secretary Chase. The absurdity of 
the enactment was soon demonstrated by its 
own operations. It greatly aggravated the diffi- 
culty which it was intended to remove. In a 
short time the premium on gold bounded up- 
wards thirty points, and fifteen days after the 
enactment of the law it was repealed by the 
very Congress which had passed it. 

A review of the course of Stevens upon all 
the measures coming before the House would 
involve practically a history of legislation dur- 
ing the war. He was so unquestionably leader 
that no man was next to him, and his industry 
and energy responded so fully to the demands, 
that he was almost always upon his feet or in 
charge of measures before the House. When 
the enormous amount of committee work which 
he was called upon to perform is remembered, 
and especially the preparation of revenue and 



/ 



WAR LEGISLATION 209 

appropriation bills, which would alone be a 
sufficient tax upon the strength of an ordinary 
man, it is almost incredible that one at his ad- 
vanced age should have been able to attend so 
constantly upon the sessions of the House and 
perform the part that he performed there. For 
the purpose of taking a glimpse of him as a 
working member in the ordinary routine of the 
House, I have instanced a few of the many 
matters with which he dealt, unimportant only 
when compared with the great financial mea- 
sures to which I have referred in a previous 
chapter and to the measures of even greater 
consequence concerning emancipation and re- 
construction of which I have still to treat. 



CHAPTER XII 

EMANCIPATION 

Peior to 1861 the struggle over slavery was 
principally involved in the effort to change the 
line that separated slave from free territory; 
and when the contest began to threaten the exist- 
ence of the Union, the efforts of our statesmen 
were dii-ected towards adopting some expedient 
which might temporarily restore the peace. As 
usually happens, violence was an important 
factor in determining the character of the com- 
promise, and the most clamorous party either 
got the best of the bargain, or, if it failed to 
accomplish that, proceeded to set it aside with 
little ceremony. Thus with alternations of 
chills and fever the nation approached the 
crisis. The only great party that had ever 
assumed anything approaching an aggressive 
attitude upon the anti-slavery side of the sla- 
very question had triumphed, and elected a 
President of the United States. Slavery had 
been dealt a harder blow, so far as the ballot 
could administer one, than it had ever received, 



EMANCIPATION 211 

and it immediately became violent in proportion 
to the force of the blow. Then the Southern 
leaders began again to threaten rebellion and 
secession. It is not strange that American 
statesmen should have thought that they de- 
tected the favorite and well-known national 
disease, and that they should have set about 
prescribing the time-honored remedy of a com- 
promise. The expiring effort of the old order 
of statesmanship was seen in the offer of a 
constitutional amendment, making it impossible 
even to confer upon Congress the power to in- 
terfere with slavery in any State. This offer, 
too, was made in the flush of the first great 
anti-slavery triumph in the nation. 

But the medicine had been tried too often, 
and had finally lost all virtue. The violence, 
which had so often demanded compromise, had 
increased until it had at last reached the point 
of causing war. Even after the appeal had 
been taken to arms the old habits of thought 
were still strong, and three months after Fort 
Sumter had been fired upon. Congress almost 
unanimously passed the Crittenden resolutions 
which Stevens, without great exaggeration, 
characterized as an apology for fighting, and 
which, whether they were apologetic or not, 
were cast in the old compromise mould. 

But the education of the Northern people, 



212 THADDEUS STEVENS 

for which they were beginning to pay so roundly 
in blood and treasure, proceeded rapidly, and 
the same Crittenden resolutions, which passed 
almost unanimously in July, were, as we have 
already seen, upon the motion of Stevens, 
promptly laid upon the table when again offered 
in the following December. This action marked 
the beginning of the ascendency of the anti- 
slavery sentiment in Congress, and the absolute 
end of compromise upon the slavery question. 
Undoubtedly the North had taken up arms to 
uphold the Union, but the struggle had not 
proceeded far before two ideas became influen- 
tial in the same direction, — the one, that eman- 
cipation was necessary as a war measure to de- 
stroy the rebellion; the other, that the Union, 
which had to be saved by such sacrifices, should 
be established upon a better and more perma- 
nent basis than the old Union, to which slavery 
had been a perpetual menace. 

Any policy which led to emancipation Stevens 
was prepared from the outset to accept. In 
supporting the mild confiscation bill at the July 
session of 1861, he did not hesitate to declare 
his opinion that the slaves should be armed if 
the war continued.^ On the day of the opening 
of the very next session he introduced a resolu- 
tion, declaring that slavery caused the rebel- 

1 Cong. Globe, August 2, 1861. 



EMANCIPATION 213 

lion; that there could be "no solid and perma- 
nent peace and union " in the republic so long 
as slavery existed within it; that slaves were 
"used by the rebels as essential means of sup- 
porting and protracting the war," and that by 
the law of nations it was "right to liberate the 
slaves of an enemy to weaken his power." His 
resolution also provided "that the President be 
requested to declare free, and to direct all our 
generals and officers in command to order free- 
dom to, all slaves who shall leave their masters 
or who shall aid in quelling this rebellion." 
It also contained a clause for the compensation 
of loyal citizens for losses under the resolution. ^ 
He supported his resolution in an extended 
speech on January 22, 1862. He declared that 
the rebellion was inevitable, and that "now is 
the appropriate time to solve the greatest pro- 
blem ever submitted to civilized man." He did 
not believe that the North could conquer until 
it had adopted a new method of warfare. The 
Southern soldiers were as brave, their generals 
were as intelligent as those of the North, and 
they had valuable allies in their swamps, their 
inaccessible mountains, their climate which 
would prove fatal to the Union armies, and 
most of all in their slaves. A vast number of 
Northern men of military age would be compelled 
1 Cong. Globe, December 3, 1861. 



214 THADDEUS STEVENS 

to stay at home to till the soil and keep in mo- 
tion the mechanical and manufacturing indus- 
tries, but every Southern white man fit for war 
could he spared for the army without taking a 
single hand from the industrial pursuits. 

"The protecting summer," which would de- 
stroy our armies, "would enable them to culti- 
vate their fields ... to furnish them the sinews 
of war." While the black man did not carry a 
gun, he was in reality " the mainstay of the 
war." He declared that he would take the slaves 
from the fields, and set them to "fighting for 
their liberty." He thought it a "puerile incon- 
sistency" that the North should be willing to 
kill the rebels in order to prevail, and yet would 
not use the freedom of the slave as an instru- 
mentality to the same end. He believed that 
manumission was merciful, but would admit 
for the sake of argument that it was "the most 
terrible weapon in our armory." That was no 
argument against its use. "Instruments of war 
are not selected on account of their harmless- 
ness. You choose the cannon that has the long- 
est range. You throw the shell that will kill 
the most men by its explosion. You grind to 
its sharpest edge the sabre bayonet. But you 
object to emancipation because it liberates the 
slaves of traitors!" He proposed his resolu- 
tions, not only as a war measure, but as a per- 



EMANCIPATION 215 

manent peace measure. "The principles of our 
republic are wholly incompatible with slavery. 
They cannot live together. While you are 
quelling this insurrection at such fearful cost, 
remove the cause, that future generations may 
live at peace." 

He spoke with still less reserve in a speech 
later in the same session upon the course of 
General Hunter in arming a regiment of black 
men.i He warmly approved the action of 
Hunter, and accused the administration of be- 
ing under the influence of "Kentucky council- 
ors," so far as the employment of slaves in the 
war was concerned. He did not believe in 
keeping the runaway slaves employed in some 
menial work until the war was over, in order 
then to send them back to their masters "un- 
hurt, under the fugitive slave law." He de- 
clared that he was in favor of sending the army 
through the slave populations of the South and 
asking them "to come from their masters, to 
take the weapons which we furnish, and to join 
us in this war of freedom." He denounced the 
charge that "the blameless sons of Ethiopia" 
were inhuman soldiers. In the uprising in San 
Domingo the blacks had done all they could 
to save their masters, against whom they were 
fighting. 

1 Cong. Globe, July 5, 1862. 



216 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Stevens was then ahead of public opinion in 
his ideas of emancipation, although that opinion 
was moving rapidly, and he was not far in 
advance of it in point of time. On December 
11, 1861, he made a pungent speech on a 
resolution requesting the President to direct 
General Halleck to withdraw an order he had 
made, prohibiting negroes from coming within 
the lines of our armies, and sending back those 
already there. ^ On March 6, following, the 
President sent a message to Congress, asking 
for the passage of a joint resolution declaring 
that the United States ought to cooperate with 
any State which may adopt gradual abolishment 
of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, 
to be used by it in its discretion to compensate 
for the damage, public and private, produced 
by such change of system. On March 10, Mr. 
Eoscoe Conkling introduced a resolution in the 
precise terms of that recommended by the Presi- 
dent, and it was passed by a vote of 89 to 31. 
Stevens voted for it, but he regarded it as of 
very little importance. On a motion to post- 
pone, he said he could not see why one side 
was "so anxious to pass it, or the other side so 
anxious to defeat it. I think it is about the 
most diluted milk-and-water gruel proposition 
that was ever given to the American nation. 

^ Cong. Globe, December 11, 1861. 



EMANCIPATION 217 

(Laughter.) The only reason I can discover 
why any gentleman should wish to postpone this 
measure is for the purpose of having a chemical 
analysis to see whether there is any poison in 
it. (Laughter)."! 

On April 10th, on motion of Stevens, the 
House proceeded to consider the bill to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and on the 
next day the bill passed by a party vote and soon 
became a law. On May 9 he warmly supported 
Mr. Lovejoy's bill prohibiting slavery in all 
territories then existing, or to be thereafter ac- 
quired, and also in forts and other public places 
and in ships on the high seas. This bill also 
passed. Thus the tendency towards emancipa- 
tion appeared general and inevitable, and nine 
months from the day on which Stevens made 
his speech in support of his resolutions for free- 
dom, Lincoln issued his proclamation of condi- 
tional emancipation. Undoubtedly Lincoln's 
action was also a little ahead of public opinion. 
After a winter and summer spent in futile at- 
tempts to secure compensated emancipation in 
the border states, and after the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and the 
passage of confiscation acts, he had the wisdom 
to see that enough had been done to alienate 
those who were opposed to interference with sla- 
1 Cong. Globe, Maxch 11, 1862. 



218 THADDEUS STEVENS 

very, but not enough to attract the radical and 
progressive element who believed that freedom 
would be a potent war measure, or who saw lit- 
tle to be desired in a Union which retained the 
ancient source of contention. Without a doubt 
Lincoln earnestly desired ultimate freedom, but 
he wanted the time to be ripe for it, and he 
was really conservative. If he could have had 
his way he would almost certainly have preferred 
a gradual process both for emancijjation and 
the suffrage. But his hand was in a sense 
forced. Vallandigham and orators of his stripe 
were not lacking in material which they could 
use in their harangues to shock the Union De- 
mocrats with the idea that they were fighting 
an "abolition war." On the other hand, the 
severest critics of the administration were found 
among the abolitionists themselves. 

Lincoln determined that the bravest course 
was the safest course, and he put emancipation 
as a war measure squarely before the people 
only a few weeks before the Congressional elec- 
tions of 1862. He declared that all slaves in 
those rebel States which should not have sub- 
mitted before January 1, 1863, "shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free." It was in the 
power of the Confederates to avoid the procla- 
mation by laying down their arms. They were 
not compelled to continue the war. On the 



EMANCIPATION 219 

other hand, if they were to keep on fighting 
indefinitely they could not expect the North to 
cherish their institution any longer. 

It was well that Lincoln displayed all his 
consummate skill as a politician in framing the 
issue as he did frame it, for the election was of 
transcendent importance. A hostile Congress 
meant, not merely delay and probably destruc- 
tion to the emancipation policy, but it meant 
also reduced appropriations for the war and 
great encouragement to the Confederates. The 
Democrats accepted the issue ; indeed they were 
anxious to raise it. In the Pennsylvania con- 
vention, which had met nearly three months be- 
fore the emancipation proclamation was issued, 
they resolved that "this is a government of 
white men, and was established exclusively for 
the white race," and that the policy which would 
"turn loose the slaves of the Southern States to 
overrun the North, and to enter into competi- 
tion with the white laboring masses, thus de- 
grading their manhood by placing them on an 
equality with negroes, is insulting to our race, 
and meets our most emphatic and unqualified 
condemnation." This declaration was temper- 
ate and conservative in comparison with the 
platforms of the same party in other States. 
They could not with any show of success make 
the issue against fighting for the restoration of 



220 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the Union. Upon that ground there was room 
for only one party. But if they could make it 
appear thaf the war was prosecuted to interfere 
with the "institutions of the States," or to 
establish political equality between the black 
man and the white, they would stand some 
prospect of success. The sentiment to which 
they appealed was then waning; but one year 
earlier it would have swept the country. The 
stake was tremendous, and the result was looked 
forward to with great anxiety. 

The early elections were disastrous. In Ohio 
the Democrats carried fourteen districts out of 
nineteen; in Indiana eight out of eleven, and 
in Pennsylvania after a desperate struggle they 
divided the delegation equally with the Repub- 
licans, and enjoyed the satisfaction of polling 
a formidable vote against Stevens, who at the 
preceding election had been practically unop- 
posed.i^ New York was carried by the Demo- 
crats, as was also the President's own State of 
Illinois, where the Republicans secured only 
three members out of fourteen. In the great 
cordon of free States, beginning with New York 
and New Jersey on the Atlantic, and extending 
to the Mississippi, the Democrats received a 
majority of twenty -three members. 

1 In 1860 Stevens received 12,964 votes against 470 for all 
others ; in 1862, 11,174 against 6,650 for Steinson, Democrat. 



EMANCIPATION 221 

But the cause of freedom was upheld by the 
extreme East and the extreme West, and, 
strangely enough, by those slave States which 
remained in the Union. Massachusetts sent a 
solid Republican delegation, as also did Iowa 
and California, and the new States of Kansas 
and Minnesota. Out of twenty-six members, . 
the slave States returned twenty-one Republi- 
cans, which proved to be almost the exact num- 
ber of the Republican majority in the House. 
The administration losses had been serious when 
compared with the two-thirds membership whifch 
it had held in the House during the thirty-sev- 
enth Congress. The heavy burdens of nearly, 
two years of indecisive war could undoubtedly 
be charged with some of this loss, and if some 
of it also was to be attributed to emancipation, 
at least it was a great gain that the final plunge 
had been taken and that a majority had sanc- 
tioned freedom. 

When the last session of the thirty-seventh 
Congress opened in December, the policy of 
emancipation had been settled upon, and it only 
remained to devise a method for making the 
decree effectual. Slavery had been withdrawii as 
a subject of controversy except as between the 
two great political parties, and the questions 
that grew out of it no longer remained to divide 
seriously the party that was responsible by the 



222 THADDEUS STEVENS 

vote of the people for the government of the 
country. But there still existed a wide diver- 
sity of opinion as to the method of getting rid 
of it. The President believed in the wisdom 
of gradual emancipation, and in his annual 
message to Congress in December, 1862, he 
somewhat checked the hopes of the extreme abo- 
litionists by recommending a plan providing 
compensation for any State abolishing slavery 
at any time before the year 1900. A bill was 
introduced for the emancipation of slaves in 
Missouri on the lines of the message, but it was 
defeated by filibustering, and similar bills with 
reference to other States were thereupon aban- 
doned. On January 1, Lincoln, true to the 
promise of his proclamation of the preceding 
September, issued a proclamation, declaring 
that, as "a fit and necessary war measure," all 
persons held as slaves within a designated area 
of rebellion became on that day free men. 

Stevens still kept up his fight for the enlist- 
ment of negro soldiers. After waiting in vain 
for action by the military committee, he boldly 
presented his bill to the House, and secured 
an assignment for its consideration without 
awaiting the report of any committee. This 
unusual course excited violent opposition, and 
an attempt was made to prevent a vote upon 
the measure by repeated roll-calls upon motions 



EMANCIPATION 223 

to adjourn and other dilatory propositions. " 
After an all night session, the House adjourned 
without action, but the struggle was resumed 
at its next meeting and continued for a week. 
Stevens concluded thedebate by a speech which 
did not lack bitterness, and which also did not 
lack eloquence. He had spoken so many times 
for the cause that he could not refrain from 
making one more effort to secure to the black 
man the right of fighting to be free. He did 
not expect to see the day when in a "Christian 
land merit shall counterbalance the crime of 
color; " but he proposed "to give them an equal 
chance to meet death upon the battlefield. . . . 
The only place where they can find equality is 
in the grave. There all God's children are 
equal." His efforts were at last crowned with 
success; the bill passed by 83 to 54, and the 
hundreds of thousands of black soldiers who 
enlisted before the end of the war refuted by 
their conduct the predictions that they would 
be guilty of inhumanity. 

The election of 1862 had made emancipation 
a party question. The Republicans were com- 
mitted to it. The Democrats, on the other 
hand, were encouraged, by their enormous gains 
in the great free States, to believe that they 
had at last found a winning issue. The ill- 
fortune which pursued our arms produced dis- 



224 THADDEUS STEVENS 

affection in the North, and the draft was con- 
tributing to make the war unpopular among 
those who would be patriotic, provided that 
they might be permitted to stay at home. The 
equal interest which the soldier had in the 
country, for which he was willing to fight, was 
recognized in a few of the States, and laws were 
passed giving him the ballot; but many times 
more than enough to turn the tide in a reason- 
ably close election were practically disfranchised, 
and the expression of the public opinion of the 
country was in effect restricted to those who 
pursued the arts of peace. Under all these 
favoring circumstances the opponents of Lincoln 
cherished no ill-founded anticipation, when they 
believed that they would be able to carry the 
country at the next general election. 

But while the great mass of the soldiers were 
deprived of the right of suffrage, they proved 
that they could settle by their valor the issues 
which they were forbidden to decide by their 
votes. Early in July, 1863, the decisive battle 
of Gettysburg marked the high-water point of 
the rebellion, and from the moment when the 
great Confederate commander led from the field 
what remained of his magnificent army, the 
cause for which he fought steadily declined. 
The decisive blow struck by Grant at Vicksburg 
followed Gettysburg by only a day, and the 



EMANCIPATION 225 

result of these two great victories put an end to 
Democratic hopes. 

At this time the freedom of the slaves had 
been proclaimed only for the rebel States, and 
not in those slave States which remained loyal, 
and it rested only upon an executive order. It 
was now determined to set the matter forever at 
rest, and to write the decree of freedom in the 
Constitution. Soon after the assembling of the 
thirty-eighth Congress Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, 
proposed an amendment to the Constitution, 
abolishing slavery, and later on the same day 
Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, introduced a similar reso- 
lution. On March 28, 1864, Stevens proposed 
an amendment very similar in phraseology to 
the one which was finally adopted. It required 
a two-thirds vote of both Houses to submit the 
amendment for adoption to the States. The 
Senate was strongly Republican, and the requi- 
site majority there was secured with little diffi- 
culty. In the House, however, the Republicans 
had a bare majority of 20 in a membership of 
162, and upon the first vote taken in June, 
1864, it failed to receive the necessary two- 
thirds vote. A motion was made to reconsider, 
and the subject was postponed until the next 
session. 

In the mean time the Union arms were every- 
where successful, and the rebellion was reduced 



226 THADDEUS STEVENS 

to the point of collapse. Lincoln was elected 
over McClellan by more than ten to one of the 
electoral vote. The Democrats were disastrously 
beaten in the Congressional elections, and the 
Republicans secured many more than the neces- 
sary two thirds of the House. Under these 
circumstances, the amendment was again called 
up, and when the vote was taken, it was found 
that enough of the Democratic members had 
patriotically bowed to the inevitable to secure 
its passage by more than the necessary two- 
thirds vote. The ratification of the amendment 
followed in due time, and this muniment of 
freedom, forever prohibiting slavery in the 
United States, became established in the Con- 
stitution. 

Emancipation was, above even union itself, 
the great contribution which the war made to 
the progress of mankind; but it was only the 
wisest statesmanship that so shaped and directed 
the varying issues of the war that freedom was 
secured and the Union saved. In a great in- 
stitution like slavery, as it existed, firmly in- 
trenched by law over a great portion of the 
country, there is so much that quickly becomes 
vested, so much, too, that is sure to be inter- 
woven into the fabric of society, that nothing 
short of a great national convulsion can remove 
- it. It was not difficult for those who were not 



EMANCIPATION 227 

financially interested in it, and who looked 
upon it from a safe distance, to become im- 
pressed with a sense of its wickedness. But 
how to do away with it was a problem for the 
profoundest statesmanship. The most casual 
survey of the course of slavery to its extinction 
will convince one both of the danger of agitation 
and of the danger of compromise, when each of 
them is taken alone, but of the potency of each 
in finally setting in motion the resultant force 
which brought forth freedom. Very many pa- 
triotic people were found who were willing to 
make the best of the evil in order to be at 
peace, or who would at the most employ pallia- 
tives and trust to time to do the work of regen- 
eration. Others desired to resort to methods 
which were excessively heroic, and would have 
killed the patient in order to destroy the dis- 
ease. The progress and very existence of so- 
ciety lay in the fact that neither of these ex- 
treme views could have its way, but that, as a 
result of antagonistic, or certainly not concur- 
rent, forces a middle and safer pathway was 
pursued. Whether slavery could, within any 
reasonable period, have been blotted out, except 
through war, is a question which is even now 
debated ; but there can be little doubt that, after 
war had been entered upon, the rational and 
conservative course was taken, and instead- of 



228 THADDEUS STEVENS 

sacrificing the Union by a premature attempt at 
freedom, or delaying freedom until tlie Union 
was lost, the time and the methods were chosen 
which made freedom more certain, and made it 
also an instrumentality for preserving the Union. 
It was fortunate that men like Stevens foresaw 
the ultimate result and prepared the minds of 
men to receive it. It was fortunate that Lin- 
coln apparently drifted with public opinion and 
waited until the moment was ripe. The im- 
mortal event was finally consummated, not by 
one side or extreme of humanity, but as a result 
of the combined wisdom of all. 



CHAPTER Xni 

THE BEGENNTNG OP KECONSTRUCTION 

The manner in which the Union might prac- 
tically be restored, and the national government 
again set in operation in the Southern States, 
after peace returned, was anxiously considered 
long before the war ended. Stevens, indeed, 
had the subject in view at the very beginning 
of the war, and had a theory to meet the case. 
I have already referred to the fact that at the 
session of Congress beginning in December, 
1861, he had declared that the States in rebel-' 
lion had forfeited all their constitutional rights, 
and that a condition of public and recognized 
war existed between them and the national 
government. The view which the Republican 
party was willing to accept at the beginning of 
the war was set forth in the Crittenden resolu- 
tions. The purpose of the war was declared 
to be to "maintain" the Constitution and to 
"preserve" the Union and "all the dignity 
and equality and rights of the several States." 
Stevens, however, dissented radically from that 



230 THADDEUS STEVENS 

doctrine at the outset. The rights of the seced- 
ing States under the Constitution were already 
destroyed, according to his theory, by their 
own action ; when they should be conquered, it 
would then be for the conqueror to determine 
what terms it would be expedient and just to 
impose. The members who had voted for the 
Crittenden resolutions in July may not have 
changed their minds by December, but they 
did not care to vote for them a second time, 
and when they were again presented many of 
those members supported Stevens's motion to 
lay them upon the table, where they and the 
doctrine of the equal and unimpaired rights of 
loyal and rebellious States remained forever 
afterwards. 

In December, 1862, Mr. Vallandigham, of 
Ohio, presented some resolutions reaffirming the 
Crittenden theory, with the obvious purpose of 
censuring the President for the departure from 

'that theory involved in his first proclamation 
of emancipation. The resolutions were defeated 
by a party vote. The Democratic position on 

; this vote was that maintained by both parties 
at the beginning of the war, and it was consist- 
ently maintained by the Democracy to the end.^ 
The course of the President and the House was 

1 Chadsey on the struggle between President Johnson and 
Congress. 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 231 

thus showing a gradual approach to the position 
of Stevens, that the Southern States could not 
claim the benefits of that Constitution and those 
laws which they were fighting to overthrow. 

In the spring of 1862 the national forces cap- 
tured New Orleans and obtained a firm foot- 
hold in Louisiana. A government was soon 
organized, and two members of Congress were 
chosen who were ultimately admitted to seats,' 
although upon what theory it is difficult to 
comprehend, unless as an exercise of the war 
power which was sufficiently elastic to be made 
to include anything. Upon the proposition to 
admit them Stevens voted in the negative. 

No step of much significance, however, was 
taken until the meeting of Congress, in Decem- 
ber, 1863, when the President declared in his 
message that "the Constitutional obligation of 
the United States to guarantee to every State 
in the Union a republican form of government, 
and to protect the State in such cases, is full 
and explicit. . . . An attempt to guarantee and 
protect a revived state government constructe(J 
in whole or in preponderating part from the 
very element against whose hostility and vio- 
lence it is to be protected is simply absurd. 
There must be a test by which to separate the 
opposing elements so as to build only from the 
sound, and that test is a sufficiently liberal one 



I 



232 THADDEUS STEVENS 

which accepts as sound whoever will make a 
sworn recantation of his former unsoundness." 
This was somewhat metaphysical, but the mean- 
ing was clear. With reference to Louisiana 
the President held that the obligations of the 
government to guarantee a republican form of 
government extended to the States in rebellion. 
Clearly, then, they were not altogether outside 
of the Constitution. 

The President at the same time issued a pro- 
clamation in which he set forth a comprehensive 
plan of reconstruction. He granted to all per- 
sons who had participated in the rebellion, with 
a few exceptions, a full pardon "with restora- 
tion of all rights of property except as to 
slaves," upon condition that they should first 
take an oath to faithfully support and defend 
the Constitution and the Union, and to support 
and abide by the laws and proclamations relat- 
ing to slavery, " so long and so far as not modi- 
fied or declared void by decision of the Supreme 
Court." ^ He required that enough must take 
the oath in any State to cast one tenth as many 
votes as were cast in that State for President in 
1860. On that condition a government estab- 
lished in any State which had seceded should 
"be recognized as the true government of the 
State, and the State shall receive thereunder the 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, p. 38. 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 233 

benefits of the Constitutional provision which 
declares that the United States shall guarantee 
to every State in this Union a republican form 
of government." The question of the admis- 
sion of senators and representatives would be 
decided by the respective Houses of Congress. 

State governments were established in Louis- 
iana and one or two other States, in pursuance 
of the President's proclamation, and constitu- 
tions were adopted which contained provisions 
abolishing slavery. 

The plan proposed by the President was not 
favorably received by the leaders of his party 
in Congress. They thought that so important i 
a matter should have been determined by legis- 
lation, and not by a mere executive proclama- \ 
tion, and the requirements were believed to be \ 
loose and easily evaded. Stevens was the last 
man to be satisfied with such a settlement of 
the question as the President proposed. At 
the opening of the December session of 1863, 
he had curtly moved to strike the names of the 
three Louisiana members from the roll where 
the clerk had placed them. He supported the 
proposition to create a special committee to con- 
sider the President's plan of reconstruction, and 
he opposed the admission of members of Con- 
gress elected under that plan in the States which 
had adopted it. 



234 THADDEUS STEVENS 

A sharp issue was soon drawn between the 
President and Congress. The senators and re- 
presentatives chosen by the reorganized state 
governments, which he had declared he would 
recognize, were refused admission to seats. This 
conflict made the situation doubly confused. 
So long as Louisiana clearly had the status of 
a rebel State, it was either in or out of the 
Union according as one adopted the Republi- 
can or the Democratic theory. But under the 
President's plan it was partly in and partly out, 
and in a position of great uncertainty. So far 
as executive recognition had validity, it was in ; 
but so far as the most important function of 
representation in Congress was concerned, it 
was out. 

The leaders in the two Houses were not 
content with merely refusing to recognize the 
States which the President had reconstructed, 
but they proceeded to form a plan of their own, 
and to send it to the President embodied in a 
bill, which, if he should sign it, would settle 
all controversy. The congressional j)lan, with 
which the name of Mr. Henry Winter Davis is 
particularly associated, provided that the Presi- 
dent should appoint a provisional governor in 
each of the States in rebellion, and that so 
soon as resistance to the national authority had 
ceased in any State, the governor should enroll 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 235 

the white male citizens; and if a majority of 
them should take an oath to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States, then the election 
of delegates to a constitutional convention should 
be ordered. The state constitution should con- 
tain provisions imposing disabilities upon cer- 
tain civil and military officers of the Confed- 
eracy, prohibiting the payment of all debts 
incurred in aid of the rebellion, and abolishing 
slavery. When all requirements had been com- 
plied with to the satisfaction of Congress, the 
President should recognize the state govern- 
ment, and the State should thereupon become 
entitled to representation in Congress. The 
measure did not contain a provision for negro 
suffrage.^ 

Although the bill contained more stringent 
provisions than the President had imposed, 
Stevens would not accept it. He said that it 
"partially acknowledges the rebel States to have 
rights under the Constitution, which I deny, as 
war has abrogated them all." He objected to 
it further, because it adopted "in some measure 
the idea that less than a majority may regulate 
. . . the affairs of a republic," and because 
it took away the right of confiscation. 

In the speech which he made upon this bill 
he stated again his position that those who sup- 
1 Chadsey, Reconstruction, p. 21. 



236 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ported the Confederacy were belligerents, that 
the right of confiscation existed, and he desired 
such an important right to be preserved; not 
that he would enforce it against non-combat- 
ants and those who were forced into the war, 
but he would hold it against the most guilty. 
"To escape the consequences of my argument 
he [Mr. Blair, o-f Missouri] denies that the 
Confederate Stated have been acknowledged as 
a belligerent or have established and maintained 
independent governments de facto. Such assur- 
ance would deny that there is a sun in the hea- 
vens. They have a Congress, in which eleven 
States are represented; they have at least 300,- 
000 soldiers in the field; their pickets are al- 
most within sight of Washington; they have 
ships of war on the ocean destroying hundreds 
of our ships, and our government and the gov- 
ernments of Europe acknowledge and treat them 
as privateers, not as pirates. From whom do 
privateers get their commissions except from a 
power independent either de jure or de facto f 
There is no reasoning against such impudent 
denials." He congratulated himself that the 
House had already accepted the proposition for 
which he had contended. "I have lived to see 
the triumph of principles which, although I had 
full faith in their ultimate success, I did not 
expect to witness. If Providence should spare 



I 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 237 

me a little longer, until this government shall 
be so reconstructed that the foot of a slave can 
never again tread upon the soil of the republic, 
I shall be content to accept any lot which may 
await me." The bill passed the House by a 
few less than the usual party majority, Stevens 
saying, amid laughter, "I refuse to vote under 
protest." 

It did not reach the President until within 
ten days of the day of adjournment of Congress, 
and by his abstention from signing it, it failed 
to become a law. The President justified this 
"pocket veto" by a proclamation, issued soon 
after the adjournment, in which he said that 
he did not wish by signing the bill "to be in- 
flexibly committed to any single plan of restora- 
tion," or to declare that the state governments 
already established should be "set aside and 
held for naught, thereby repelling and discour- 
aging the loyal citizens who have set up the 
same." 

The plan which the President had proclaimed 
was not carefully framed, and it was at best 
incomplete. It provided for a recognition by 
the executive department alone. If Congress 
should fail to extend recognition to a reestab- 
lished state government, it would remain practi- 
cally a military government with no clearly 
defined status. It was manifestly the part of 



238 THADDEUS STEVENS 

wisdom, before beginning upon the work of 
reconstruction, for Congress and the President 
to agree upon some plan which, when put into 
effect, would complete the work of restoration. 
There was little practical wisdom in a course 
which might lead to contradictory action upon 
the part of the greUt departments of the govern- 
ment, when the task was grave enough to de- 
mand every resource which could be brought 
to bear through harmony and cooperation. 

The plan proposed by Congress was prepared 
with much greater care. The work of recon- 
struction under it would doubtless have been 
more slow, but it would have been more certain 
to be lasting. It was more exacting than the 
President's plan, but mild in the extreme when 
compared with that which was ultimately 
adopted. Had Lincoln given it his approval, 
the long conflict with President Johnson and 
his impeachment would probably have been 
averted, and the anarchy into which some of 
the Southern States were plunged, and many 
of the other unfortunate consequences which en- 
sued, would very likely have been avoided also. 

The disagreement between the President and 
Congress stopped the work of reconstruction 
for the time, but it was only postponed. With 
the end of the war it was sure to press for a 
final solution. The controversy was dropped 



i 



I 



CO 








THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 239 

so far as the President was concerned, but Con- 
gress at its next session returned to the subject 
by passing a resolution, "declaring certain 
States not entitled to representation in the 
electoral college," which was clearly aimed at 
Lincoln's "ten per cent States," as they were 
called by his opponents who desired to be 
facetious. 1 The President avoided a renewal 
of the controversy by signing the resolution, 
and he sent a message to Congress, announcing 
that he did so " in deference to the view of Con- 
gress implied in its passage." He added, how- 
ever, that the President had nothing to do with 
the counting of the electoral vote, and he dis- 
claimed "that by signing said resolution he had 
expressed any opinion " on its subject matter 
or on the recitals of the preamble. 

It is not very profitable to conjecture what 
the course of reconstruction would have been 
had Lincoln lived, but it is certain that he 
clung to his views with much pertinacity, and 
in a carefully prepared speech, which he read 
only three days before his death, he warmly 
defended the "Louisiana plan." He declared, 
with reference to the men responsible for the 
newly organized state government of Louisiana, 
that, "if we now reject and spurn them, we do 
our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. 

^ Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, pp. 2-45. 



24D THADDEUS STEVENS 

We say to the white man, you are worthless 
or worse. ... To the black man we say, this 
cup of liberty which these, your old masters, 
hold to your lips we will dash from you. . . . 
If this course, discouraging and paralyzing to 
both white and black, has any tendency to bring 
Louisiana into proper practical relations with 
the Union, I have so far been unable to per- 
ceive it. If, on the contrary, they recognize and 
sustain the new government of Louisiana the 
converse of all this is made true." All this 
could only mean that he believed in the wisdom 
of the plan he had proposed, and if that is con- 
ceded, there can be little doubt that he would 
have adhered to it in its substantial parts. In- 
deed it is hard to resist the conclusion, after 
reading his elaborate speech, that he made it 
with the purpose of preparing the public mind 
for the action which the destruction of the rebel- 
lion would thrust upon him. "It may be my 
duty," he said, "to make some new announce- 
ment to the people of the South. I am consid- 
ering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied 
that action will be proper."^ In the Hamp- 
ton Koads conference, February 3, 1865, he 
promptly declared, when questioned on the sub- 
ject, that it was his opinion that the Confeder- 
ate States ought to be admitted to representation 

^ Life of Lincoln, by Nicolay and Hay, vol. ix. pp. 461-463. 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 241 

in Congress, when the war was ended; and that 
it was also his opinion that, "when the resist- 
ance ceased and the national authority was 
recognized, the States would be immediately re- 
stored to their practical relations to the Union." 
In addition to Lincoln's expressions of opinion 
on this question, near the time of his assassina- 
tion, and his own intimation that he was about 
to make "some new announcement," not to Con- 
gress, but "to the people of the South," there 
is strong direct testimony as to the character of 
this announcement. Mr. McCuUoch, who was 
appointed secretary of the treasury almost im- 
mediately after his second inaugural, and con- 
tinued in that position under President John- 
son, declared that the work of reconstruction 
under Johnson "was taken up just, where Mr. 
Lincoln had left it. The very same instrument 
for restoring the national authority over North 
Carolina, and placing her where she stood be- 
fore her attempted secession, which had been 
approved by Mr. Lincoln, was presented by 
Mr. Stanton at the first cabinet meeting which 
was held at the Executive Mansion after Mr. 
Lincoln's death, and, having been carefully con- 
sidered at two or three meetings, was adopted 
as the reconstruction policy of the administra- 
tion." ^ Not improbably the "two or three meet- 

1 McCulloch, Men and Measures of Half a Century, p. 378. 



242 THADDEUS STEVENS 

ings" were necessary to convert Mr. Andrew 
Johnson, who had protested to Lincoln against 
the leniency of the terms of the surrender at 
Appomattox, and who, by his early presidential 
speeches upon the blackness of the crime of 
treason and the necessity for punishing it, con- 
firmed the general belief that he regarded his 
predecessor's policy towards the rebels as too 
mild.^ Mr. McCulloch's statement is confirmed 
by General Grant, ^ and is powerfidly corrobo- 
rated by the fact that the identical cabinet 
which served under Lincohi remained in office 
under Johnson, and at so early a time after the 
accession of the latter concurred unanimously 
in the plan of reconstruction. The plan itself 
contained more stringent provisions than were 
embodied in Lincoln's proclamation put forth 
less than a year and a half earlier. There 
is little room for doubt that Mr. Lincoln had 
practically decided upon the plan of reconstruc- 
tion which, six weeks after his death, was pro- 
mulgated by Andrew Johnson, which gave rise 
to the long and bitter conflict between Congress 
and the President, and led to a condition of 
things similar to that in England during the 
Revolution when Parliament was supreme. If 

1 Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. ii. pp. 8, 14, 65. 

2 Testimony, July 18, 18G7, before Impeachment Commit- 
tee. 



THE BEGINNING OF RECONSTRUCTION 243 

that great man had lived, his fine political sa- 
gacity and his popularity with the people might 
not have been strong enough to carry through 
his plan of reconstruction, but we can at least 
feel sure that his moderation would have averted 
any serious rupture; that he would not have 
been dragged to the bar of the Senate in im- 
peachment proceedings, and that Congress, un- 
der the lead of Stevens, would not have wielded 
the supreme power. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE JOHNSON PLAN 

Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as 
President, April 15, 1865. Although coming 
from a State which had joined the rebellion he 
had shown the most unflinching loyalty. His 
devoted service to the Union had won him the 
nomination for the vice-presidency. Stevens, 
who was a delegate to the convention of 1864, 
voted for him, although with the greatest reluc- 
tance.^ He was a man of rugged honesty and 
of no little egotism as well, and was a good deal 
given to declaiming about the Constitution and 
his own virtues, after the fashion of a school of 
statesmen somewhat numerous then and by no 
means extinct now. 

But his selection as a possible President was 
due to any consideration except that of fit- 

^ Stevens said to Colonel A. K. McClure, who was also a 
delegate, after the latter had voted for the nomination of 
Johnson : " Can't you find a candidate for Vice-President in 
the United States, without going down to one of those damned 
rebel provinces to pick one up ? " Lincoln and Men of War 
Times, p. 260. 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 245 

ness for the position. He did not possess the 
special training and natural aptitude necessary 
for the administration of the office even in quiet 
times ; and in the patience, discernment, politi- 
cal tact and constructive capacity, so requisite 
for leadership in the task of reestablishing civil 
government in so many States upon a perma- 
nent basis, he was conspicuously lacking. He 
was not long in demonstrating that his selection 
had been a mistake. In the speech which he 
made upon taking the oath as President, imme- 
diately after the death of Lincoln, he said no- 
thing about the latter, little about the country, 
and much about himself. "Toil and an honest 
advocacy of the great principles of free govern- 
ment," he observed, "have been my lot." 
Then, with characteristic modesty, he added- 
"The duties have been mine, the consequences 
God's." His reticence about all things except 
himseK did not produce a good impression, and 
the fear that it portended a severe policy towards 
the South was soon strengthened by his violent 
denunciation of traitors, who, he declared, 
must be punished and impoverished. "If you 
take the life of one individual for the murder 
of another, . . . what should be done with one 
who is trying to assassinate this nation . . . ? 
The time has arrived, my countrymen, when 
the American people should be educated and 



246 THADDEUS STEVENS 

taught what is crime, and that treason ... is 
the highest crime that can be committed, and 
those engaged in it should suffer all its pen- 
alties. I know it is very easy to get up sym- 
pathy and sentiment where human blood is about 
to be shed, easy to acquire a reputation for 
leniency and kindness, but sometimes its effects 
and practical operations produce misery and woe 
to the mass of mankind."^ These sentiments, 
uttered not merely in one speech, but reiterated 
again and again, produced general uneasiness, 
and extorted even from that stern old radical, 
Benjamin F. Wade, an entreaty that he would 
limit the number to be hung to a good round 
dozen and no more.^ 

Under the instruction of Seward and the 
other statesmen who composed Lincoln's cabi- 
net and whom he still retained, the President 
made rapid progress. In six weeks after his 
inauguration he promulgated his plan of re- 
construction. The plan was contained in two 
papers — one a proclamation of amnesty appli- 
cable to all the rebellious States, and the other 
an executive order having reference only to 
North Carolina, but soon after applied by suc- 
cessive orders to all the rebellious States not 

* Johnson's speech to citizens of Indiana, April 21, McPher- 
son's Reconstruction, p. 45. 

2 Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, ii. p. 14. 



\ 





/f-^-X^_ 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 247 

included in proclamations issued by Lincoln. 
The amnesty proclamation was almost identical 
with Lincoln's proclamation, issued in Decem- 
ber, 1863, except that its terms were not so 
liberal. It granted a pardon for treason to all 
who should take an oath to support the Consti- 
tution and the Union, and to obey all laws and 
proclamations which had been made with refer- 
ence to the emancipation of slaves. Thirteen 
classes were exempted from the privileges of 
the proclamations as against only seven classes 
in the proclamation of Lincoln, and the terms 
of exclusion were much more sweeping and 
severe. With regard to these classes it was 
provided that special application for pardon 
should be made in each case. 

The North Carolina order was exactly one in 
theory with Lincoln's "Louisiana plan," and 
was based upon the clause of the Constitution 
which provided that the United States should 
guarantee to each State a republican form of 
government. It declared that the forces of the 
rebellion, now almost overcome, had destroyed 
civil government in North Carolina, and that it 
had become necessary to carry out the obliga- 
tions of the United States to the people of that 
State and secure to them a republican form of 
government. It appointed a provisional gover- 
nor of North Carolina, and ordered him at the 



248 THADDEUS STEVENS 

earliest practicable time to prescribe rules for 
"convening a convention," composed of dele- 
gates chosen by the loyal people of the State, 
for the purpose of amending the state constitu- 
tion, and for adopting such a republican form of 
government "as will entitle the State to the 
guarantee of the United States therefor." The 
"loyal people" were to include only those who 
should take the oath and receive the pardon 
provided for in the amnesty proclamation, and 
they were required to be qualified voters accord- 
ing to the laws in force at the time of secession. 
The military 'commander in the State was ordered 
to assist the governor; the postmaster-general 
was instructed to establish post offices and post 
routes, and the heads of the other departments 
were directed to enforce throughout the State 
the national laws imder their respective jurisdic- 
tions. Thus the work of reconstruction was 
imposed upon the white race, and in effect was 
put in the control of those who had participated 
in the rebellion. Since the latter were greatly 
in the majority, the formation of the new Con- 
stitution which was to establish the conditions 
of the suffrage and of other fundamental rights, 
was to be committed to their hands. 

The conventions called for by the successive 
proclamations were quickly held, the old state 
constitutions were repaired, and in a wonder- 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 249 

fully short time the legislatures were in session 
passing laws, and senators and representatives 
for the national Congress were chosen. The 
first acts of the provisional governments were ' 
regarded by the people of the North with the 
most intense and friendly interest. The pas- . 
sions of the war had not wholly subsided; but' 
there was heartfelt rejoicing that the bloody 
contest was over, and a general desire to witness 
the reestablishment of state governments at the 
South and the complete restoration of the Union. 
Andrew Johnson, too, had won golden opinions 
by his patriotic course as the "war governor" of 
Tennessee, and enjoyed a high degree of popu- 
larity in the North. The one point which ex- 
cited the most interest was the treatment that 
was to be accorded to the negro by the new gov- 
ernments. 

There was a wide difference of opinion even 
among Republicans as to the wisdom of confer- 
ring the ballot upon the newly liberated slave, 
but there was no difference of opinion, among 
all loyal men of whatever party, as to the neces- 
sity of maintaining inviolable the freedom which 
had been won for him at such great cost. It 
was unfortunate, although it was not unnatural, 
that the new legislatures should not have appre- 
ciated the great importance of leaving the negro 
alone, if they could not treat him without dis- 



250 THADDEUS STEVENS 

crimination. But most of them speedily pro- 
ceeded to enact laws expressly aimed at the 
freedmen. A sufficient reference to these laws 
to illustrate their general character is necessary, 
because they had a vital effect in determining 
future legislation upon reconstruction, and espe- 
cially in producing the antagonism between 
Congress and the President, of whose policy 
they were the first fruits. 

The legislature of Mississippi passed laws 
requiring certain officers to report to the pro- 
bate courts all free negroes under the age of 
eighteen, whose parents were without the means 
to support them or refused to do so, and that 
the court should thereupon order them to be ap- 
prenticed until they became of age. In choosing 
the master for the new apprentice the former 
owner was to have a preference. Severe penal- 
ties were enacted in case the "apprentice" ran 
away, or if any person furnished him with food 
and clothing. When poverty was so universal 
among both blacks and whites very few colored 
people could judicially prove that they had the 
means of supporting their children. The same 
legislature enacted that all free negroes over 
eighteen years of age, found with no lawful 
employment or business, should be deemed va- 
grants, and be subject to a heavy fine. If 
unable to pay the fine the freedman was to be 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 251 

"hired out," preferably to his old master, for 
a term sufficient to produce the amount of the 
fine.^ 

Another act was passed relating to the "em- 
ployment" of freedmen, with provisions of for- 
feiture of rights for violation of the contract, 
which left the payment of wages practically 
optional with the employer. Any negro who 
should quit the service of his "employer" be- 
fore the expiration of his contract became prac- 
tically an outlaw, and any one giving him food 
or clothing became liable to an action for dam- 
ages by the "employer," to a heavy fine, and 
to possible imprisonment. 

The laws of South Carolina were drafted 
upon the same lines as those of Mississippi. 
"All persons of color " making contracts of 
labor were to be known as servants, and their 
employers as masters. In order to follow any 
pursuit, except one of the most menial charac- 
ter, a colored man was required to pay a license 
fee, which was practically prohibitory, and 
which was not required of a white man. 

Special crimes were created and special penal- 
ties imposed upon the black race. The unequal 
character of these laws led to the intervention 
of General Sickles, the military commander of 
that department, who issued an order which 
1 Act of November 24, 1865. 



252 THADDEUS STEVENS 

caused the military law to shine for once in 
comparison with civil justice. It practically 
set the code aside and declared that "all laws 
shall be applicable alike to all the inhabitants," 
and that a freedman should not be obliged "to 
pay any tax or any fee for a license, nor be 
amenable to any municipal or parish ordinance, 
not imposed upon all other persons." ^ 

The Johnson legislature in Alabama passed 
bills relating to contracts for labor, which went 
far towards doing away with the emancipation 
proclamation. They devised an easy way back 
to slavery for men and women, and one that 
was even more effective for children. Perhaps 
the most vicious of these statutes was the new 
charter of Mobile, which attached to the crime 
of poverty, universal and inevitable among the 
black race at that time, a penalty of six 
months' labor for the benefit of the city, and 
made it possible to rebuild its neglected streets, 
wharves, and other public works out of the un- 
compensated labor of the freedmen. Some of 
the worst of the bills failed to become laws 
through a courageous use of the veto power by 
Governor Patton.^ 

The laws of Florida created a criminal court, 
with jurisdiction to try for vagrancy and other 

* Order of January 17, 1866. 

^ McPherson's Reconstruction, p. 21. 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 253 

crimes for which capital punishment was not 
provided. In the proceedings of this court no 
indictment or written pleadings were required. 
If any fine should not be paid, the "vagrant" 
might be put to such labor as the county com- 
missioner should direct, or might be "hired 
out" by that official to any person who would 
take him for the shortest time and pay the 
fine and costs. ^ Special criminal statutes were 
passed, aimed at the negro, and providing for 
contracts for labor with "persons of color." 

These "contracts " were given a peculiar 
sanctity so far as the obligations of the black 
man were concerned. A violation on the part 
of the employer would subject him to a mere 
civil liability, in the shape of a proceeding for 
damages, for breach of contract; but a viola- 
tion on the part of the black man constituted a 
heinous crime, for which he was liable to be pil- 
loried, or whipped with thirty-nine lashes, or 
"hired out for one year." 

But it is monotonous iteration to review the 
early legislation of the reconstructed govern- 
ments established under the proclamation of 
the President. In most of the States the laws 
established a condition but little better than 
that of slavery, and in one important respect 
far worse; for in place of the property interest, 
^ Act of January 11, 1866. 



264 THADDEUS STEVENS 

which would induce the owner to preserve and 
care for his slave, there was substituted the 
guardianship of penal statutes ; and the ignorant 
black man, innocent of any intention to commit 
a wrong, could be bandied about from one 
temporary owner to another who would have no 
other interest than to wring out of him, with- 
out regard to his ultimate condition, all that 
was possible during the limited term of his 
thraldom. 

An attempt has been made to excuse these 
laws by the assertion that similar statutes 
existed in Northern States.^ This amounts to 
a very slender justification. In the first place 
the Northern statutes, which are called similar, 
applied impartially to all races. Most of the 
statutes which I have referred to were leveled 
at the negro alone and discriminated against 
him. Doubtless a great many unwise laws, the 
accumulation of a century, could be found on the 
statute books of the older States, which had es- 
caped the attention of the people and legislators 
alike, and had become obsolete. But it would 
surely have been a scanty display of political 
wisdom for the newly established state govern- 
ments of the South to extract these vicious 
principles and embody them in laws against the 
black race, in their very earliest exercise of 
1 Why the Solid South ? H. A. Herbert, pp. 32-36. 



THE JOHNSON PLAN 255 

legislative power, and when the eyes of the 
nation were upon them to see whether the free- 
dom which resulted from a great war could be 
safely intrusted to their hands. It was most 
unfortunate, in view of the formative condition 
of opinion among the Northern people, that 
those particular statutes should have been en- 
acted at that particular time. A most unfavor- 
able impression was produced at the North. 
The people there felt that emancipation was 
liable to be nullified to a considerable extent by 
state laws, if the making of the laws was exclu- 
sively intrusted to the former master. Then, 
for the first time, the opinion became widespread 
that the newly acquired freedom must be armed 
with the ballot. The first results of Johnson's 
reconstruction policy thus established its un- 
popularity at the North and paved the way for 
a radical reaction. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 

While the new legislatures of the Southern 
States were about the work of passing their 
vagrant and labor laws, the thirty-ninth Con- 
gress assembled for the first time. The over- 
whelming Republican victory in 1864 had se- 
cured to that party a great majority in both 
Houses. For a second time the policy of a 
Republican President upon the reconstruction 
of the rebellious States was to come before 
Congress. It came now with even greater sanc- 
tion, because Johnson's policy had been Lin- 
coln's, and because, too, the war was now 
ended. The issue was a momentous one. 
Would Congress break with the President and 
refuse to recognize his state governments ? 

The clerk of the preceding House of Repre- 
sentatives, whose duty it was to make up the 
list of members-elect, had excluded from the 
roll the names of those who presented creden- 
tials of election from the reconstructed Southern 
States. The issue was raised at the outset, and 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 257 

the strongest possible case was first presented 
by the Democrats. Before the speaker was 
elected, Mr. Brooks demanded to have it de- 
cided whether Mr. Maynard, a prominent /Re- 
publican from Tennessee, was entitled to\ his 
seat. If Tennessee is not in the Union, Mr. 
Brooks argued, the President of the United 
States, who comes from that State, must be a 
foreigner and a usurper. The Congress imme- 
diately preceding that one had permitted the 
members from Louisiana to take their seats and 
vote for speaker. Why should the members of 
the same State be excluded now? The clerk, 
Mr. Brooks declared, had excluded the South- 
ern members from the roll because of a resolu- 
tion passed at a caucus of Republican members. 
He intimated to Stevens that he should be glad 
to know " at what period he intends to press this^ 
resolution, of which he is to be the organ." 

Stevens sat with the resolution in his pocket 
which was to work the commencement of that 
memorable conflict between the President and 
Congress, which transcends in importance any 
other political struggle in our history. He had 
a large majority at his back, and was about to 
see the beginning of the triumph of the ideas 
which he had long advocated, and for which 
he had been denounced as a radical. If he was 
impressed with the gravity of the crisis he cer- 



258 THADDEUS STEVENS 

tainly did not show it. He could not even re- 
frain from making Brooks the victim of a gen- 
eral laugh. "I have no objection to answer 
the gentleman," he said in a tone of mock seri- 
ousness. "I propose to press it at the proper 
time." 

The House proceeded at once to elect its 
officers, and after that had been done, and be- 
fore the reception of the annual message of the 
President, Stevens offered his resolution, which 
provided for a joint committee on reconstruc- 
tion, to be composed of nine representatives 
and six senators, who should inquire into the 
condition of the Southern States and "report 
whether they or any of them are entitled to be 
represented in either House of Congress; . . . 
and imtil such report shall have been made 
and finally acted upon by Congress, no member 
shall be received into either House from any of 
the said so-called Confederate States." He 
moved to suspend the rules and also for the 
previous question, which cut off all debate, and 
his resolution passed by 133 to 36. 

As a mere piece of political strategy this 
move was admirable. In all probability the 
House would not at that time have voted to 
condemn the policy of the President. It was 
regarded as the policy, not only of Johnson, 
but also of Lincoln, and the influence of Lin- 



I 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 259 

coin had never been so potent as during the 
year which followed his assassination. More- 
over, the Southern legislatures had not yet pro- 
ceeded far in their work of passing discriminat- 
ing laws, and the tendency of the new system was 
not generally seen. Stevens, however, already 
discerned the unpopularity to which the policy 
of the President was predestined, and he desired 
to give time for the storm to gather. What 
could be more fitting than to have the whole 
matter carefully considered by a committee of 
Congress before it should be decided? And so, ■ 
without even learning the plea which the Presi- 
dent's message contained, he shrewdly procured 
an adjournment of the question while a com- 
mittee should investigate, and the presidential 
policies, working out their own destruction, 
should at last give way to the ideas for which 
he himself had contended. Before that day 
Stevens had been the leader of the House of 
Representatives. Henceforth he was to be its 
dictator and the leader of his party throughout 
the country. 

Stevens was made the House chairman of the 
Committee on Reconstruction, and among his as- 
sociates were such prominent men as Bingham, 
Washburne, Boutwell, Conkling and Morrill. 
The appropriation bills were taken from the 
Committee on Ways and Means, from which 



260 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Stevens retired, and given to a new committee. 
Stevens was appointed chairman of the first 
Committee on Appropriations. Important as 
was the work of the latter committee it was 
largely of a routine character, and his attention 
was absorbed by the great problem of recon- 
struction and kindred subjects. On the second 
day of the session he proposed a series of amend- 
ments to the Constitution, prohibiting the pay- 
ment of the Confederate debt by any State or 
by the United States; apportioning representa- 
tives among the States according to the number 
of their respective legal voters, and declaring 
that all national and state laws should be equally 
applicable to every citizen without discrimina- 
tion on account of race. 

Nearly all these propositions were afterwards 
incorporated in substance in the fourteenth 
amendment to the Constitution, which Stevens 
reported from the Committee on Reconstruction 
during the same session, but in a form which in 
one important particular was far less effective. 
His proposition to base representation upon the 
nimaber of legal voters, to be ascertained by the 
national census, was seK-operating, and would 
have been far more effective than the mere gen- 
eralization which took its place in the Constitu- 
tion, and which, though often violated, has never 
once been enforced. 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 261 

He lost no opportunity to impress upon Con- 
gress his views upon the constitutional status 
of the Confederate States. He opened the de- 
bate on reconstruction, in a somewhat lengthy 
speech, for him, on December 18, 1865. He 
attacked the position of Lincoln and Johnson, 
which assumed that reconstruction was within 
the province of the Executive. "There is," 
he said, "fortunately, no difficulty in solving 
the question. There are two provisions in the 
Constitution, under one of which the case must 
fall. The fourth article says that ' new States 
may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union.' In my judgment this is the control- 
ling provision in this case. Unless the law of 
nations is a dead letter, the late war between 
two acknowledged belligerents severed their ori- 
ginal compacts, and broke all the ties that bound 
them together. The future condition of the con- 
quered power depends on the will of the con- 
queror. They must come in as new States or 
remain as conquered provijices. Congress — 
the Senate and House of Representatives, with 
the concurrence of the President — is the only 
power that can act in the matter. But suppose, 
as some dreaming theorists imagine, that these 
States have never been out of the Union, but 
have only destroyed their state governments so 
as to be incapable of political action, then the 



262 THADDEUS STEVENS 

fourth section of the fourth article applies, which 
says : ' The United States shall guarantee to 
every State in this Union a republican form of 
government. ' Who is the United States ? Not 
the Judiciary; not the President; but the sov- 
ereign power of the people, exercised through 
their representatives in Congress with the con- 
currence of the Executive. It means the politi- 
cal government, the concurrent action of both 
branches of Congress and the Executive. The 
separate action of each amounts to nothing, 
either in admitting new States or guaranteeing 
republican governments to lapsed or outlawed 
States." 

After expounding his well known arguments 
upon this proposition, he said that those States 
should not be admitted to the Union until the 
principles embodied in his proposed amendments 
to the Constitution should be established in that 
instrument, and especially the amendment basing 
representation upon the number of legal voters. 
/ If they were admitted with the basis unchanged, 
they would, with the aid of Northern Demo- 
crats, " at the very first election take possession 
of the White House and the halls of Congress." 
They might then assume the Confederate debt, 
repudiate the Union debt, and reestablish slav- 
ery. He proposed to take no such chances 
while the North was the conqueror. He boldly 



I 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 263 

proposed negro suffrage, and declared that, if 
the blacks were given the right to vote, " there 
would always be Union white men enough in 
the South, aided by the blacks, to divide the 
representation, and thus continue the Republi- 
can ascendency." If they were not given the 
right of suffrage in the late slave States, the 
representation of those States would, under his 
amendment, be so reduced as to " render them 
powerless for evil." 

He referred to the legislatures of the Presi- 
dent's reconstructed States as " the aggregation 
of whitewashed rebels, who, without any legal 
authority, have assembled in the capitols of the 
late rebel States and simulated legislative 
bodies." The doctrine that this was a "white 
man's government" he declared to be "as atro- 
cious as the infamous sentiment that damned the 
late chief justice to everlasting fame, and I fear 
to everlasting fire." 

When Stevens delivered this speech he had 
evidently not advanced to the position of requir- 
ing the concession of negro suffrage as a condi- 
tion of the readmission of the Southern States ; 
but he proposed, by basing representation upon 
the number of legal voters, to make it to their 
political interest to grant the franchise, and to 
leave the question in that form to the decision of 
each State. He did not believe that the negro 



264 THADDEUS STEVENS 

should count in the representation, if he were 
not permitted to vote. He estimated that those 
States would have eighty-three representatives, 
if the blacks were counted, and forty-six if they 
were excluded, and that the opportunity to mul- 
tiply their representation almost by two would 
induce them to confer the suffrage upon the 
negro. 

This speech mortally offended the administra- 
tion, and it was determined that a reply should 
be made at once, in order to check its influence 
upon the country. The friends of the Presi- 
dent's policy were few in number among the 
Republicans of the House; but one was found, 
Mr. Henry J. Raymond, who was ready to de- 
fend it, and who did so with very great abil- 
ity. 

Mr. Raymond was not a lawyer, and he failed 
utterly to turn the coldly logical position which 
Stevens had so long held, that a condition of 
public war had existed, and that the Southern 
States could not be heard to set up any constitu- 
tional or other rights against the conqueror, ex- 
cept such as were granted by the laws of war. 
But as an argument in favor of the adoption of 
a liberal policy towards the South, regardless of 
what her strict legal rights were, the speech was 
admirable. Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, replied 
to the legal propositions of Mr. Raymond in a 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 265 

speech of great eloquence, and the debate thus 
inaugurated was spun out indefinitely and with 
constantly increasing acrimony. 

Neither was it confined to the House of Re- 
presentatives, for the President himself was not 
long in taking part in it. The appointment of 
the Committee on Reconstruction and the speech 
of Stevens wounded him deeply, and, as reti- 
cence could not be numbered among his virtues, 
he took an early opportunity to free his mind. 
In the course of a speech, very formidable in 
length, made on February 22, 1866, he desisted 
from self-eulogy long enough to denounce the 
Committee on Reconstruction as " an irrespon- 
sible central directory, 'which had usurped' 
nearly all the powers of Congress." " Suppose," 
he added, with that charming disregard of the 
proprieties of his position so characteristic of 
him, " I should name to you those whom I look 
upon as being opposed to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of this government, and as now laboring 
to destroy them. I say Thaddeus Stevens, of 
Pennsylvania ; i say Charles Sumner, of Massa- 
chusetts ; I say Wendell Phillips, of Massachu- 
setts. . . . An honest conviction is my suste- 
nance, the Constitution my guide." Then he 
returned to his favorite themes, — Andrew John- 
son and the Constitution.^ 

1 McPherson, Eeconstruction, pp. 60, 61. 



266 THADDEUS STEVENS 

The President's speech gained no favor for his 
cause among his enemies, and the egotism and 
undignified character of the performance dis- 
gusted many of his friends. Stevens made his 
second important contribution to the discussion 
on March 10, 1866. He taunted Mr. Raymond 
with failing to support himself with a single au- 
thority against the contention that the rebellious 
States possessed any rights under the Constitu- 
tion. " The gentleman," he said, " denies the cor- 
rectness of Vattel's doctrine, . . . but he gives us 
no authority but his own. I admit the gravity 
of the gentleman's opinion, and with the slight- 
est corroborating authority should yield the case. 
But without some such aid I am not willing that 
the sages of the law whom I have been accus- 
tomed to revere, — Grotius, Rutherford,' Vattel, 
and a long line of compeers, — sustained by the 
verdict of the civilized world, should be over- 
thrown and demolished by the single arm of the 
gentleman from New York. ... I pray the gen- 
tleman to quote authority ; not to put too heavy 
a load upon his own judgment ; he might sink 
under the weight. Give us your author." 

Stevens denied that his doctrine involved the 
efficacy of the secession ordinances, " which 
amounted to nothing either in law or in fact. It 
was the formation of a regular, hostile govern- 
ment, and the raising and supporting of large 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 267 

armies, and for a long time maintaining their 
declaration of independence, that made them a 
belligerent and the contest, war." He disputed, 
with only apparent inconsistency, the theory that 
loyal citizens alone made a State. A State was 
made up of all legal citizens, good or bad, within 
its jurisdiction, and the " control of republics 
depends on the number, not the quality, of the 
voters. This is not a government of saints. 
It has a large sprinkling of sinners." He then 
proceeded to a serious eulogy of the President^ 
who, he said, had " stood too firmly for the 
Union in the midst of dangers and sacrifices to 
allow me to doubt the purity of his wishes." 
But he must denounce his opinions when they 
were wrong. " I should have forgotten the oblo- 
quy which I have calmly borne for thirty years 
in the war for liberty, if I should turn craven 
now." He was evidently prepared to overlook 
the gross and unbecoming personal attack which 
the President had made upon him ; but one of 
the Democratic members interrupted him, to ask 
if the Thaddeus Stevens whom the President de- 
nounced in a speech was the same person who 
was now eulogizing him. This produced the 
effect upon Stevens that was evidently intended. 
Did the gentleman suppose, Stevens replied, 
that the President ever made that speech ? He 
then convulsed the House with a mock defense 



268 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of the President, and insisted that he could not 
possibly have made the speech attributed to him. 
He was glad of an opportunity to exonerate the 
President. The story was a Democratic slander. 
Of course the charge was not serious. " My friend 
before me, if he were trying in court a case de 
lunatico ioiquirendo, and if the outside evidence 
were doubtful, leaving it questionable whether 
the jury would adopt the view that insanity ex- 
isted, would cautiously lead the alleged lunatic 
to speak upon the subject of the hallucination, 
and, if he could be induced to gabble nonsense, 
the intrinsic evidence of the case would make 
out the allegation of insanity. So, Mr. Speaker, 
if these slanderers can make the people believe 
that the President ever uttered that speech, then 
they have made out their case. [Laughter.] But 
we all know he never did utter it. [Laughter.] " 
Then, he said, the Democrats had also cunningly 
invented circumstances to give the story an air 
of truth. They said that while the President 
was speaking he was supported by a late "rebel 
mayor of this city, who was gratuitously fur- 
nished lodgings in one of our penal forts for 
some time. [Great laughter.] The people may 
have been deceived, but we who knew the Presi- 
dent knew it was a lie from the start. [Re- 
newed laughter.] Now, sir, having shown my 
friends that all it is built upon is fallacious, I 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 269 

hope they will permit me to occupy the same 
friendly position with the President I did be- 
fore. [Laughter.] " ^ 

After this diversion Stevens proceeded with 
his argument. The President had in fact adopted 
the " conquered province " theory. He had ap- 
pointed military governors, had fixed the qualifi- 
cations of voters, and prescribed the kind of con- 
stitutions the States should adopt. What part 
of the Constitution gave him such powers over 
a State in the Union? He then called ridicule 
into his service, of which no countryman of 
his has ever been a more adept master, in de- 
scribing the proceedings in the different South- 
ern States under the President's proclamations. 
What could be better, for instance, than his re- 
ference to the case of Virginia, which " had as- 
sembled the free representatives of fragments of 
about eleven townships, out of one hundred and 
forty-two counties ; elected in spots between the 
contending armies, on disputed ground, . . . 
twelve men, . . . who met within the Federal 
lines, called itself a convention, formed a consti- 
tution, ordered elections for the whole State, and 
Governor Pierpont received about 3300 votes for 
governor, . . . and was proclaimed In the market- 
house of Alexandria governor of imperial Vir- 
ginia, the mother of statesmen. In ' reconstruc- 
^ Congressional Globe, March 10, 1866. 



1/ 



270 THADDEUS STEVENS 

tion' the President acknowledged him as the 
governor, and those twelve as the representa- 
tives of a million and a quarter of people, and 
counts this Virginia as one of the twenty-seven 
States that adopted the constitutional amend- 
ment. I am fond of genteel comedy, but this 
low farce is too vulgar to be acted on the stage 
of nations. Are these free republics, such as 
the United States are bound to guarantee to all 
the States in the Union ? Should these swindles, 
these impostures, bred in the midst of martial 
law, without authority from Congress, be acknow- 
ledged here ? " He then exposed the inconsist- 
encies in which the President was involved by 
his theories, and urged again the adoption of the 
principles of his proposed constitutional amend- 
ments as a part of any plan of reconstruction. 

The relations between the President and his 
party in the two Houses of Congress had by this 
time drifted into hopeless antagonism. The first 
open rupture came on the veto of the Freed- 
men's Bureau bill. This veto, which was sent 
to Congress on February 19, 1866, had nar- 
rowly escaped the two-thirds vote. A few very 
conservative Republican senators were not pre- 
pared to break finally with the President, and 
voted to sustain him. A second bill of the same 
general character, but free from some of the ob- 
jections urged against the first bill, was promptly 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 271 

passed. This bill was also vetoed. The House 
at once passed it over the veto by a vote of more 
than three to one, and the Senate, very likely 
influenced by the decisive action of the House, 
recorded more than the necessary two-thirds vote 
against the veto. 

About the same time the civil rights bill was 
passed by the two Houses, and received the Ex- 
ecutive veto, which was promptly overridden by 
more than the required vote in both Houses, 
and amidst unmistakable expressions of public 
approval. From that time forth a veto of the 
President was little more than an idle formality, 
to be promptly brushed aside by the great Re- 
publican vote of the two Houses, and the will of 
Congress became absolute. 

On April 30, 1866, Stevens reported to the 
House the important fourteenth amendment for 
submission to the States, and with a few changes 
in form it ultimately became a part of the na- 
tional Constitution. The amendment broadly 
declared that " all persons born or naturalized 
in the United States and subject to the juris- 
diction thereof are citizens of the United States 
and of the State wherein they reside," and pro- 
hibited any State from abridging the privileges 
of citizens or denying to any person " the equal 
protection of the laws." Eepresentatives were 
apportioned according to population ; but if in 



272 THADDEUS STEVENS 

any State the right to vote were denied to any 
male citizens twenty-one years of age, except for 
crime, the representation should be proportion- 
ately reduced. It imposed a disability, which, 
however, might be removed by a two-thirds vote 
of Congress, upon those who, having before the 
war held office and taken an official oath to sup- 
port the Constitution, had afterwards taken part 
in the rebellion. The validity of the national 
debt was established, and the payment of claims 
for the emancipation of slaves and of all debts 
incurred in the prosecution of the rebellion was 
prohibited. 

A bill was reported by Stevens, at the same 
time, declaring that when the fourteenth amend- 
ment should have become a part of the Consti- 
tution, and "any State lately in insurrection 
should have ratified it " and adopted a constitu- 
tion and laws in conformity with its terms, such 
State should be admitted to representation in 
Congress. The measure was not acted upon 
and went over to the next session. It was then 
abandoned for more stringent measures, chiefly 
because the provisional governments of the South- 
ern States contemptuously refused to accept the 
fourteenth amendment, which of course put an 
end to the comparatively mild condition set 
forth in the plan to base reconstruction upon 
the acceptance of that amendment. They them- 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 273 

selves were far from being free from responsi- 
bility for the harsher system that was finally 
imposed. 

The Committee on Reconstruction dealt with 
the situation in an extended report, which was 
presented to the Senate by Fessenden and to 
the House by Stevens, and in almost every line 
of which the influence of the ideas of the latter 
can be traced. The report declared that the 
action of the insurrectionary States had de- 
stroyed their constitutions " in respect to the 
vital principle which connected their respective 
States with the Union and secured their federal 
relations." It conceded that the President in 
his military capacity might " permit the people 
to form local governments," but declared that 
Congress alone possessed the power to establish 
the conditions under which the States might 
receive again their rights as States. Their peo- 
ple had fought until they were " reduced to the 
condition of enemies conquered in war, entitled 
only by public law to such rights, privileges, 
and conditions as might be vouchsafed by the 
conqueror." Under these circumstances they 
could not " complain of temporary exclusion from 
Congress." The argument in favor of the " con- 
quered province " theory was then stated with 
extraordinary force. 

" It is moreover contended, and with apparent 



274 THADDEUS STEVENS 

gravity, that, from the peculiar nature and char- 
acter of our government, no such right on the 
part of the conqueror can exist ; that from the 
moment when rebellion lays down its arms and 
actual hostilities cease, all political rights of 
rebellious communities are at once restored ; 
that, because the people of a State of the Union 
were once an organized community within the 
Union, they necessarily so remain, and their 
right to be represented in Congress at any and 
all times, and to participate in the government 
of the country under all circumstances, admits 
of neither question nor dispute. If this is in- 
deed true, then is the government of the United 
States powerless for its own protection, and 
flagrant rebellion, carried to the extreme of 
civil war, is a pastime which any State may 
play at, not only certain that it can lose nothing 
in any event, but may even be the gainer by 
defeat. If rebellion succeeds, it accomplishes 
its purpose and destroys the government. If 
it fails, the war has been barren of results, and 
the battle may be still fought out in the legisla- 
tive halls of the country. Treason, defeated in 
the field, has only to take possession of Congress 
' and the cabinet. . . . The question before Con- 
gress is, then, whether conquered enemies have 
the right, and shall be permitted, at their own 
pleasure and on their own terms, to participate 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 275 

in making laws for their conquerors ; whether 
conquered rebels may change their theatre of 
operations from the battlefield, where they were 
defeated and overthrown, to the halls of Con- 
gress, and, through their representatives, seize 
upon the government which they fought to de- 
stroy ; whether the national treasury, the army 
of the nation, its navy, its forts and arsenals, 
its whole civil administration, its credit, its 
pensioners, the widows and orphans of those 
who perished in the war, the public honor, peace 
and safety, shall all be turned over to the keep- 
ing of its recent enemies without delay, and 
without imposing such conditions as, in the 
opinion of Congress, the security of the country 
and its institutions may demand." 

The report insisted upon the imposition of the 
conditions prescribed in the bill, to which I have 
just referred, the passage of which the commit- 
tee recommended. The bill, however, did not go 
so far as Stevens desired. On the last day of the 
session he offered amendments to it, giving the 
blacks an equal right of suffrage with the white 
race, and supported these amendments in a speech 
of great seriousness. He was at the time worn 
out with the work of the session, his health was 
slender, he bore the burden of more than the 
allotted number of years, and very probably the 

1 Report of June 18, 1866. 



276 THADDEUS STEVENS 

fear that he might not be permitted to return 
to his seat in the House imparted an unusual 
solemnity to his manner and inspired him " to 
make one more — perhaps an expiring — effort 
to do something which shall be useful to my 
fellow men ; something to elevate and enlighten 
the poor, the oppressed, and the ignorant in this 
great crisis of human affairs." The black man, 
he declared, must have the ballot or he would 
continue to be a slave. There was some allevi- 
ation to the lot of a bondman, but " a freeman 
deprived of every human right is the most de- 
graded of human beings." Without the protec- 
tion of the ballot-box the freedmen were " the 
mere serfs," and would become " the victims, of 
their former masters." He declared that what 
he had done he had done for humanity. " I 
know it is easy," he said, " to protect the inter- 
ests of the rich and powerful ; but it is a great 
labor to guard the rights of the poor and down- 
trodden, — it is the eternal labor of Sisyjjhus 
forever to be renewed. ... In this, perhaps my 
final action on this great question, I can see 
nothing in my political course, especially in re- 
gard to human freedom, which I could wish to 
have expimged or changed. I believe that we 
must all account hereafter for deeds done in 
the body, and that political deeds will be among 
those accounts. I desire to take to the bar of 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 277 

that final settlement the record which I shall 
this day make on the great question of human 
rights. While I am sure it will not make atone- 
ment for half my errors, I hope it will be some 
palliation. Are there any who will venture to 
take the list with their negative seal upon it, 
and will dare to unroll it before that stern 
Judge who is the Father of the immortal beings 
whom they have been trampling under foot, and 
whose souls they have been crushing out ? " 

His speech made a profound impression. ^ It 
had the tone of a farewell message ; but his time 
was not yet to come until he should see his own 
sympathy and his inextinguishable love of lib- 
erty engraven still more deeply upon the statute 
books of his country. 

The session ended before he Congressional 
plan of reconstruction had been fully developed, 
but its general lines were clearly indicated and 
the difference with Johnson had passed beyond 
the point of compromise. The hostility of the 
President to the fourteenth amendment produced 
a cabinet crisis, and three members resigned; 
but Mr. Stanton, still to all appearances loyal, 
retained his position, wherein he was soon to 
become a thorn in the side of the President and 
ultimately the occasion of his impeachment. 

The issue between the President and Congress 
was clearly defined, and was ripe for presenta- 



278 THADDEUS STEVENS 

tion to the people in the Congressional elections 
which followed the adjournment of the first ses- 
sion of the Thirty-ninth Congress. A cam- 
paign of great excitement followed. The course 
was taken, somewhat unusual in elections when 
the presidency is not at stake, of holding na- 
tional conventions. 

Ill luck attended the Johnson demonstrations. 
The elements which supported him were so an- 
tagonistic that they either neutralized each other 
and produced a result which was a nullity, or 
afforded ready material for effective popular 
ridicule. On the other hand, the Republican 
conventions were imposing affairs. Mr. Speed, 
who had retired from the office of attorney- 
general because of his disagreement with the 
President, presided over one of them with dra- 
matic effect. But the great meeting of citizen 
soldiers and sailors who came together to de- 
nounce the President's policy, composed as it 
was of the most conspicuous volunteers in the 
war for the Union, set the popular current irre- 
sistibly in favor of the radical policy of Con- 
gress. 

As the campaign progressed the agitation in 
favor of granting suffrage to the negro as a 
necessary muniment of his freedom became 
more marked. The bold and extreme ideas, 
which Stevens had advocated, were far more 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 279 

likely to prevail in times of popular passion and 
when the patriotism of the people was stirred to 
the depths, than was any policy which bore upon 
itself the appearance of a surrender. The peo- 
ple had faith in the efficacy of laws for any 
condition, and it was not enough that the em- 
bers of rebellion should be permitted slowly to 
die and a new system gradually take shape and 
grow out of the chaos which covered the South ; 
rather some great enactment was demanded 
which should be in keeping with the greatness of 
the war. It was a ripe time for decorating the 
Constitution with magnificent reforms. That 
they would prove effective was taken for granted 
from the fact that they were to have a place 
in so imposing an instrument. That they could 
even prove injurious, if they were in advance of 
the times or in any respect at variance with the 
laws of nature, was not thought of. The edict 
of so mighty a people could, in the popular 
mind, accomplish anything; could even at one 
fiat raise up four millions of the African race 
from the depths of slavery to the dignity of 
equal membership in a self-governing and highly 
civilized nation. 

There appeared to be no middle course which 
was practically attainable. Lincoln was not 
living, to urge his conservative plan of gradual 
enfranchisement, beginning with those who were 



280 THADDEUS STEVENS 

most intelligent or had served in the Union 
armies, and cautiously extending the right to 
all who were, or should become, fitted to dis- 
charge the duties of citizenship. Moreover, the 
President's plan had worked abominably with 
the hostile negro laws which were so promptly 
enacted under it and the bloody riots in which 
many freedmen were killed. 

Stevens, more than any other man, supplied 
his party with an issue, but his personal part 
in the conduct of the campaign was small. His 
health at the adjournment of Congress in July 
was very slender, and his physician had enjoined 
upon him an abstinence from work. He was 
certain of reelection, and he employed himself 
in recuperating from the exhausting labors of 
the previous session and preparing himself to 
endure the heavy burdens that he was still to 
carry. But the grotesque performances of the 
President in his pilgrimage to the tomb of 
Douglas, which he converted into the most vul- 
gar sort of a campaign tour, tempted Stevens 
to depart from the strict rule which he had 
prescribed for himself. This expedition of 
Johnson's, which suggested the name that is 
likely always to adhere to it, — " swinging round 
the circle," — remains and is probably destined 
to remain without a parallel in our history. He 
had with him a distinguished retinue composed 



THE RUPTUEE WITH THE PRESIDENT 281 

of members of his cabinet, including Mr. Seward, 
General Grant and Admiral Farragut. The 
presence of these distinguished men would ordi- 
narily have secured him large audiences and 
a respectful hearing. But he was not long in 
dispensing with this advantage together with the 
dignity of his office. 

He violently attacked Congress, and chose to 
assume that the only obstacles which stood be- 
tween himself and a dictatorship lay in his own 
self-control and his attachment to the Constitu- 
tion. There was no necessity for his declaring, 
as he did in his speech at Cleveland, " I care not 
for dignity " ; for in the same speech he said 
that, " though the powers of hell and Thad Ste- 
vens and his gang were by, they could not turn 
me from my purpose." In the same speech 
also he asked : " Why not hang Thad Stevens 
and Wendell PhiEips ? I tell you, my country- 
men, I have been fighting the South, and they 
have been whipped and crushed, and they ac- 
knowledge their defeat, and accept the terms of 
the Constitution ; and now, as I go around this 
circle, having fought traitors af the South, I am 
prepared to fight traitors at the North." ^ The 
inquiry why Stevens should not hang was evi- 
dently a favorite one with the President, and he 
again propounded it at St. Louis. 

"^ ^ McPherson, Beconstruction, p. 137. 



282 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Stevens apparently did not permit his seren- 
ity to be disturbed, and did not stand in great 
fear of being executed, if one may judge from 
a little off-hand speech which he made to his 
constituents a short time before the election. 
" I come not to make a speech," he said, " but 
for the want of one. When I left Washington 
I was somewhat worn by labors and disease, and 
I was directed by my physician neither to think, 
to speak, nor to read until the next session of 
Congress, or I should not regain my strength. 
I have followed the first injunction most re- 
ligiously, for I believe I have not let an idea 
pass through my mind to trouble me since Con- 
gress adjourned. The second one — not to speak 
— I was seduced from keeping ; and I made a 
speech at Bedford, — the only one I have made. 
The one — not to read — I have followed al- 
most literally. It is true, I have amused myself 
with a little light, frivolous reading. For in- 
stance, there was a serial account from day to 
day of a very remarkable circus that traveled 
through the country, from Washington to Chi- 
cago and St. Louis, and from Louisville back 
to Washington. I read that with some interest, 
expecting to see in so celebrated an establish- 
ment, — one which from its heralding was to 
beat Dan Rice and all the old circuses that ever 
went forth, — I expected great wit from the 



THE RUPTURE WITH THE PRESIDENT 283 

celebrated character of its clowns. [Laughter.] 
They were well provided with clo^vns ; instead 
of one, there were two. One of these clowns 
was high in office and somewhat advanced in 
years ; the other was a little less advanced in 
office, but older in years. They started out with 
a very respectable stock company. In order to 
attract attention they took with them, for in- 
stance, a celebrated general; they took with them 
an eminent naval officer, and they chained him 
to the rigging so that he could not get away, 
though he tried to do so once or twice. But 
the circus went on all the time, — sometimes one 
clown performing and sometimes the other. For 
instance, the younger clown told them, in the 
language of the ancient heroes, who trod the 
stage, that he had it in his power, if ' he chose, 
to be a dictator.' The elder clown pointed to 
the other one, and said to the people, ' Will 
you take him for President or will you take him 
for King ? ' [Laughter.] He left you but one 
alternative. You are obliged to take him for 
one or the other, either for President or King, 
if ' My policy ' prevails. 

" I am not following them all round. I shall 
not describe to you how sometimes they cut out- 
side the circle, and entered into street broils 
with common blackguards ; how they fought at 
Cleveland and Indianapolis. But, coming round, 



284 THADDEUS STEVENS 

they told you, or one of them did, that he had 
been everything but one. He had been a tailor, 
— I think he did not say drunken tailor, — no, 
he had been a tailor. [Laughter.] He had been 
a constable. [Laughter.] He had been city 
alderman. [Laughter.] He had been in the 
legislature. God help that legislature ! [Great 
merriment.] He had been in Congress ; and 
now he was President. He had been every- 
thing but one, — he had never been a hangman, 
and he asked leave to hang Thad Stevens. 
[Laughter.] " i 

The elections had not proceeded far before it 
became evident that the cause of the President 
was lost. The Republican majority in some of 
the States was unprecedented, and the result 
was a sweeping victory, the R-epublicans electing 
143 members against 49 Democrats. With more 
than two thirds of the membership of both 
Houses, the congressional leaders had nothing 
to fear from the presidential veto, which they 
could override at pleasure. What the President 
had been from the beginning of his term he was 
destined to continue until its close, — a mere nul- 
lity as a factor in partisan legislation. Recon- 
struction was now sure to come, and upon more 
radical lines than had ever been proposed. The 
triumph of the theory of Stevens was complete. 

1 Thaddeus Stevens, Commoner, by E. B. Callender, pp. 158- 



» 161. 



CHAPTER XVI 

BECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION AND ITS 
RESULTS 

The message which the President sent to 
Congress at the December session of 1866 was a 
strong and dignified paper, but it afforded no 
evidence of the truth of that statement which he 
had so often made about himself, that he bowed 
to the will of the people. It contained a power- 
ful vindication of his own course, and urged upon 
Congress the wisdom of admitting the senators 
and representatives from the rebellious States. 
The two Houses at once proceeded to exhibit 
equal devotion to their own policy. On the 
second day of the session Stevens offered a reso- 
lution for the establishment of the Committee on 
Reconstruction, which, being a joint committee, 
had expired with the previous session. Both bod- 
ies concurred in the resolution, and the committee 
set itself to work to develop a bill which Ste- 
vens finally reported to the House, Februaiy 6, 
1867. At that time every one of the legislatures 
of the insurrectionary States had voted upon 



286 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the fourteenth amendment ; and with the excep- 
tion of Tennessee, which had promptly accepted 
it and been admitted to representation in Con- 
gress, they all had rejected the amendment, 
and, in some instances, by a unanimous vote. 
It was useless, therefore, to entertain the plan 
proposed by the committee during the preceding 
session, and events irresistibly pressed Congress 
more closely to the radicalism of Stevens. He 
was so constituted that it was impossible for 
him to change his opinions upon the question. 
They were firmly imbedded in his sense of jus- 
tice, and, what had scarcely less force with a 
great lawyer, he believed them firmly imbedded 
in the law. He adhered to his position upon 
reconstruction as persistently as Johnson ad- 
hered to his. He would not have yielded had 
he been in a minority ; he certainly could not 
be expected to yield after the emphatic expres- 
sion of the people of the loyal States at the 
November election. 

He pressed on the work in his committee, 
where he was providing for provisional military 
governments for the South ; and he also seized 
every opportunity to impress upon the House 
the wisdom of requiring that the constitution of 
the Southern States should establish negro suf- 
frage as a condition of readmission. He pre- 
sented again, in a new form, the arguments 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 287 

which he had so frequently employed, and he 
called upon Congress to show at last that it had 
the boldness to act. '* In the acquisition of true 
fame," he said, " courage is just as necessary in 
the civilian as in the military hero. We may 
not aspire to fame, but great results fix the eye 
of history on small objects and magnify their 
meanness. Let us at least escape that condi- 
tion." 

That he would not deviate from what he be- 
lieved to be sound legal principles even in the 
hour of victory was shown by his opposition, at 
the opening of the December session, to a bill, 
reported by the law committee of the House, 
repealing an ancient statute of limitations, and 
providing that all persons guilty of treason 
might be tried at any time for the crime. He 
declared that the bill appeared like an attempt 
to permit judicial murder ; and while he was 
convinced that " none of these traitors " could 
ever be convicted of treason under the laws 
then existing, he " would rather let every man 
of them run unpunished forever than to make 
a law now by which they could be pimished." 
He was willing enough to punish traitors, but 
he thought that by the proposed measure " our 
government would be endangered in its future 
existence, in its sense of justice, in its character 
before the world." He believed, too, in a statute 



288 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of limitations for treason, for, although it was a 
high crime, there were " generally so many en- 
gaged in the crime of treason and rebellion that 
there must be some quieting law." He desired 
that bloodshed should cease with the war, but 
he was strenuous in urging the confiscation of 
property as a punishment for the leaders of the 
rebellion. 

The reconstruction bill, which his committee 
finally brought into the House, recited that 
" the pretended state governments of the late 
so-called Confederate States afford no adequate 
protection for life or property, but countenance 
and encourage lawlessness and crime ; " and 
that it was necessary to enforce order until loyal 
state governments could be established. To 
that end it provided that the " so-called States " 
should be divided into five military districts. 
The President was ignored, but the general of 
the army was to assign to the command of each 
district an officer of the regular army not below 
the rank of brigadier-general, who was armed 
with full authority to protect life and property, 
suppress insurrection and preserve order, and 
might permit the civil tribunals to try offenders ; 
or he could in his discretion employ military 
commissioners ; but the sentence of a military 
tribunal affecting life or liberty should not be 
executed until approved by the officer in com- 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 289 

mand of the district. The bill was a brief and 
drastic measure of military government. As 
Garfield aptly said, in a speech in support of 
the measure, " it was written with a steel pen 
made out of a bayonet." 

There was, undoubtedly, at the time almost 
a paralysis of civil government at the South. 
The organizations established under the Presi- 
dent's plan were denied recognition by Congress, 
had been discredited by the elections, and had 
no practical efficiency as governments. Some 
vigorous sort of authority was demanded to 
secure the ends of government over that area 
which had been the seat of war, and was then 
the theatre of a social revolution so profound 
as that involved in the emancipation of slaves. 
Political assassinations were not infrequent ; and 
riots and insurrections made the reign of disor- 
der in some sections almost supreme. 

I have already referred to the bill, reported 
at the preceding session by Stevens, for the per- 
manent reorganization of the state governments, 
which had not been finally acted upon by the 
House, although he had urged action. As the 
thirty-ninth Congress was about to come to an 
end he desired that the bill establishing military 
governments should become a law on account of 
temporary necessity. Something, he thought, 
should be done to preserve order while Con- 



290 THADDEUS STEVENS 

gress was settling upon a scheme of final resto- 
ration. The measure gave rise to a long and 
exciting debate. Some of the Republicans, 
prominent among whom were Mr. Bingham and 
Mr. Blaine, insisted that the two measures 
should go hand in hand, and that Congress 
should not set up military governments in the 
Southern States, without at the same time pre- 
scribing the terms by which these States could 
be freed from them, and to which their perma- 
nent civil governments should conform. Mr. 
Blaine offered an amendment substantially pre- 
scribing the most important conditions for read- 
mission, which had been already set forth in the 
bill reported by Stevens at the preceding ses- 
sion and in certain extreme amendments which 
he had proposed. But Stevens for some reason 
did not wish to see the two measures combined, 
although they were both substantially his own. 
He strenuously resisted the adoption of Mr. 
Blaine's amendment, which he stigmatized as a 
" step towards universal amnesty and universal 
Andy-Johnsonism." He asked the House to 
adopt the military government bill in the form 
in which he had presented it. He declared that 
it was not intended as a reconstruction measure, 
but " simply as a police bill to protect the loyal 
men from anarchy and murder, until this Con- 
gress, taking a little more time, can suit gentle- 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 291 

men in a bill for the admission of all those rebel 
States upon the basis of civil government." 
Curiously" enough his resistance was made effec- 
tive only by the aid of Democratic votes, and 
after an acrimonious discussion, to which he 
contributed some characteristic ridicule, he se- 
cured the passage of the bill in the precise form 
in which he desired it to pass. 

The contest was renewed in the Senate by the 
advocates of the Blaine amendment, and that 
body incorporated its essential features in the 
measure. The House, however, refused to yield 
except upon the insertion of conditions which, 
after a conference, the Senate agreed to accept ; 
and the bill then went to the President. It was 
now the 20th of February, 1867. As the Con- 
gress expired on the 4th of March, and the 
President was given ten days in which to con- 
sider the bill, its fate was even yet in doubt. If 
he should take the full time allotted him by the 
Constitution before sending in his inevitable 
veto, only two days would remain in which to 
pass it again through both Houses ; and this 
time might be consumed by dilatory tactics, and 
thus the biU might fail through lack of final 
action before the termination of Congress. 

Johnson comprehended the situation, and 
held back his veto until the last moment, trans- 
mitting it to the House on the afternoon of 



292 THADDEUS STEVENS 

March 2, which was Saturday. The Congress 
expired on the following Monday at noon. Ste- 
vens saw that no time was to be lost, and at 
once demanded consideration, but yielded for 
brief statements from Democratic members, who 
protested that the bill meant the dissolution of 
the Union and " the death knell of republican 
liberty." One of them declared that the bill 
should not pass unless he was " overpowered 
from physical exhaustion, or restrained by the 
rules of the House." Stevens, in closing the de- 
bate, said that he had listened to the gentlemen, 
because he appreciated " the melancholy feelings 
with which they are approaching this funeral of 
the nation," but as he desired the passage of the 
bill he asked Mr. Blaine to move a suspension 
of the rules. Mr. Blaine accordingly made the 
motion, and after an ineffectual attempt at fili- 
bustering, the bill was at once passed by a vote 
of 135 yeas to 48 nays. The Senate speedily 
took similar action, and thus the reconstruction 
bill became a law. 

The measure was shortly after amended in 
technical details. It was also changed from 
time to time to meet the difficulties growing out 
of the unfriendly attitude of the President, who 
had charge of its execution; but it embodied 
the essential principles upon which civil govern- 
ment at the South was reestablished, and the 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 293 

rebellious States restored to the Union. As it 
finally passed it contained the provisions of the 
original bill for the military governments, ex- 
cept that the commanders of the different de- 
partments were to be appointed by the President 
instead of by the general of the army, and that 
no sentence of death should be executed without 
the approval of the President. It also enacted 
that when the people of any of the insurrection- 
ary States should have adopted a constitution 
conforming in every respect with the national 
Constitution ; and passed by a convention of dele- 
gates chosen by male citizens, not disqualified 
by crime, twenty-one years old and upwards, " of 
whatever race, color, or previous condition," who 
had been residents of the State one year ; " and 
when such constitution shall provide that the 
elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such 
persons as have the qualifications herein stated 
for electors of delegates ; and when such consti- 
tution shall be ratified by a majority of the per- 
sons voting on the question of ratification who 
are qualified as electors for delegates ; " and when 
the constitution should have been aj^proved by 
Congress ; and the fourteenth amendment adopted 
by the State, and have become a part of the 
national Constitution, "said State shall be de- 
clared entitled to representation in Congress." 
It will thus be seen that the plan of recon- 



294 THADDEUS STEVENS 

struction which was finally put in operation 
conformed in a singular manner, in its essential 
principles, with the ideas that Stevens had long 
advocated. It was promulgated by Congress, 
and not by the Executive, as he had never 
ceased to contend should be the case since Lin- 
coln had put forth his " Louisiana plan." It 
applied a radical dogma, which he had long pro- 
claimed with the voice of one crying in the wil- 
derness, and practically treated the Southern 
States as conquered provinces and as entitled to 
no rights imder the Constitution. It prescribed 
universal suffrage for the black as well as for 
the white man, not merely in the formation of 
the new state constitutions but as an enduring 
part of those instruments. 

The permanent efficiency of Stevens's plan was 
much impaired by a departure from the form 
which he advocated in that clause of the four- 
teenth amendment fixing the basis of represen- 
tation in Congress. By one of the so-called 
compromises in the Constitution, one kind of 
property was exalted above all other kinds, and 
representation in Congress was based upon 
slaves equal to three fifths of their number. 
Stevens always contended that this was wrong ; 
but it was in the Constitution, and he showed 
that sort of willingness to abide by it which 
springs out of compulsion. But after emanci- 



EECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 295 

pafclon had raised the negro above the dignity 
of property, and had transformed him from a 
chattel into a man, Stevens very justly contended 
that this dumb representation should end ; and 
he did not propose, by apportioning representa- 
tives directly according to population, to give to 
the war the effect of augmenting the political 
power of the conquered, as would be the case if 
the white man alone were to exercise the suf- 
frage, and all, instead of three fifths, of the 
negroes were to be counted in establishing the 
basis of representation. 

He therefore proposed, as I have stated, dur- 
ing the early period of the controversy with 
Johnson, to divide the representatives among 
the States according to the number of legal 
voters, to be ascertained by the national census. 
Under this provision, which was to have univer- 
sal application throughout the Union, any State 
which saw fit to exclude black men or any other 
men from the suffrage would do so at the ex- 
pense of its representation in the national 
House. If the excluded classes could not have 
representatives of their own choosing, they were 
to have none chosen by somebody else. His 
proposition, in the form in which he made it, 
was not adopted, but was set aside in order to 
adopt in its place the language now standing 
in the Constitution, and which, while it was 



296 THADDEUS STEVENS 

doubtless intended to have the same effect so 
far as the black man was concerned, still awaits 
that positive legislative action necessary to give 
it vitality. 

I have thus endeavored to outline the prin- 
cipal steps in the adoption of the plan of re- 
construction, avoiding, as far as possible, the 
technical history of various propositions and 
amendments, of slight value except to the special 
student, which would demand a long narration 
and be of no corresponding advantage in secur- 
ing a general understanding of the final result. 
The legislation itself is of transcendent impor- 
tance ; and it constitutes the great contribution 
which Stevens made to the history of his coun- 
try, although for some of the details he is not to 
be held responsible. 

Whether the conditions that were imposed 
upon the Southern States were wisely imposed 
or not, there can be little doubt that Stevens 
was right in discarding the pedantic and techni- 
cal phases of the question and treating recon- 
struction as a practical jjroblem. It was purely 
a question of what was best for the future, and 
not of constitutional rights of the seceded States. 
At this distance of time it seems inconceivable 
that men should have seriously advanced the 
proposition, as a basis for practical action, that 
the States were never out of the Union, and that 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 297 

when peace returned they were of right entitled 
to representation in Congress. The laws had 
been violently set aside, and the sword appealed 
to, in what proved to be the greatest civil war 
in all history. The work of conquering the 
people of the rebellious States, defended as they 
were by climate, by vast areas of territory, and 
by their own splendid valor, presented to the 
North one of the most difficult tasks that ever 
confronted a nation. They continued to strug- 
gle to the very end, and only laid down their 
arms because they could fight no longer. After 
the victory had been won through the destruc- 
tion of seven hundred thousand men and seven 
billions of dollars' worth of property, it was seri- 
ously proposed that no safeguards should be 
exacted for the future, if the framers of the 
Constitution three-fourths of a century before 
had not provided for such a contingency. 

Stevens clearly saw that it would be criminal 
folly to throw away any advantage of so costly 
a war in order to preserve a constitutional fic- 
tion, and that those who were charged with the 
responsibilities of the victory would be false 
alike to the victor and to the vanquished, if, on 
account of any scruples about the Constitution, 
they should neglect a single precaution against 
the recurrence of strife, or should fail to provide 
the most careful safeguards for the future safety 



298 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of all. Within the theatre of the war the Con- 
stitution had been set aside, and there had been 
a cessation of all the processes of the law. Ste- 
vens believed in the Constitution, but he did 
not believe in parchment worship or that the 
earth should be held in bondage to a dead gen- 
eration. A new crisis had been reached in our 
affairs, and the supreme considerations in deal- 
ing with it were those of common sense and 
expediency. 

But while the point of view from which he 
regarded the problem was the correct one, the 
question of the wisdom of the remedy which 
was prescribed is a very distinct question. That 
must be determined to some extent, at least, by 
its actual operation and effect. In the course of 
time, necessary state governments were estab- 
lished upon the basis of the congressional act, 
the substantial conditions governing readmission 
were complied with, and the senators and 
representatives of the Southern States were ad- 
mitted to both Houses of Congress. During the 
formative period of the new state governments 
and under the era of military rule a fair degree 
of order was maintained. That kind of govern- 
ment was obviously not destined to be popular 
among a people accustomed to free institutions, 
but it was probably as effective and as little 
harsh as any military government could have 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 299 

been in the face of the difficulties with which 
it contended, and it was better than anarchy. 

The important point is the effect of the negro 
suffrage so suddenly and so universally imposed. 
The presence of federal soldiers was favorable 
to the working of this experiment, since they 
protected the black man and made his right to 
vote a practical as well as a theoretical right. 
What happened was precisely what might have 
been expected to happen when the roots of soci- 
ety were upturned, and when its lowest strata 
were at once forcibly imposed upon the top. 
What followed lacked even the one element of 
justice, which it would have possessed if the 
poor colored man had shared in the spoliation 
which resulted, and had gained some portion of 
the fruits of his extorted and uncompensated 
labor. But instead of being a beneficiary he 
was made the innocent instrument of plunder 
by as unprincipled a set of political scoundrels 
and public robbers as ever looted a defenseless 
treasury. Undoubtedly there were some honest 
and patriotic men who removed to the South 
immediately after the war and participated in 
politics, but they were in a minority, unable 
materially to restrain and powerless to control. 

The administration of most of the Southern 
state governments had long been characterized 
by economy and frugality even in the time of 



300 THADDEUS STEVENS 

their prosperity. Public officers performed 
tlieir duties for small salaries, in public build- 
ings of primitive construction, and amid sur- 
roundings where any elements of luxury would 
be sought for in vain. But the simplicity and 
economy, which had been so long practiced from 
inclination, were imperatively demanded in the 
conditions following the war, when poverty was 
well-nigh universal, and the once wealthy pos- 
sessor of hundreds of slaves had become as poor 
as the meanest black man he had once owned. 

The barest survey of the facts will suffice to 
show the first effect of the new order. In the 
State of Florida in 1860 the combined salaries 
of the principal executive officers were $26,200 
upon a taxable valuation amounting to about 
$67,000,000. In 1869 some of these officers had 
been given the sounding title of " cabinet offi- 
cers," and they were paid in a way to maintain 
" the dignity of the office." The tax valuation 
of the State had decreased more than one half, 
but the salaries were nearly trebled. The legis- 
lative expenses in 1860 were $17,592 ; in 1869, 
$67,620. The total annual state expenditures 
in the same period bounded from $118,000 to 
$375,000. In the four years from 1868 to 1872 
the bonded indebtedness of the State increased 
enormously.^ 

^ The figures relating to the expenditures and debts of the 



* 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 301 

In Georgia the appropriations for the pay 
and mileage of membei's and officers of one of 
the earliest legislatures of the reconstructed gov- 
ernment amounted to $979,000, or more than 
four times as much as it had been the rule to 
appropriate for the same purpose by former leg- 
islatures. The State owned a railroad from 
which it received a net revenue in 1867 of 
8300,000. In 1870 all the gross receipts were 
consumed in the " operation " of the road, and 
a deficit still remained of more than $500,000, 
which had to be met out of the treasury.^ From 
1868 to 1874 the indebtedness of the State in- 
creased more than 16,000,000. 

The chief result of the work of the first legis- 
lature of North Carolina under reconstruction 
was the issue of $14,000,000 of the bonds of the 
State in aid of railroads, none of which was 
ever constructed, and $11,000,000 more were 
authorized, but were not issued because the re- 
gime was set aside. 

The debt of Alabama, including bonds which 
were issued or indorsed on account of rail- 
roads, was increased from $8,356,000 in 1868 to 
$25,503,000 in 1874. 

Southern States, I have taken mainly from TTie Last Quarter 
Century in the United States, by E. Benjamin Andrews, and 
Why the Solid South, by Hilary A. Herbert. 

1 Beconstruction in Georgia, by Hon, H. G. Turner; Why 
the Solid South, pp. 134^137. 



302 THADDEUS STEVENS 

In South Carolina the legislators soon tired 
of the simplicity with which their predecessors 
had been content. They reveled in plate-glass 
mirrors and Gothic chairs, and then stole them. 
The furniture of the hall of the House, which 
has since been furnished for $3000, cost over 
$50,000 in a single session. In four years the 
sum of $200,000 was expended for furniture, and 
at the end of that time a diligent search failed 
to disclose more than $18,000 worth, even esti- 
mating it at the original cost. In a single ses- 
sion of the legislature the sum of $350,000 was 
appropriated for " supplies, sundries, and inci- 
dentals," of which $125,000 went for maintain- 
ing a restaurant in the Capitol, where liquors 
and other refreshments were furnished to mem- 
bers and their friends at the public expense. 
In the year preceding the war the taxes did not 
exceed $400,000. In 1871 they reached the 
sum of $2,000,000, although the tax valuation 
was but little more than one third as great as in 
the first named year. Millions of the bonds of 
the State were disposed of at a small fraction 
of their full value. In four years the public 
debt was increased by over $13,000,000, and it 
represented little but extravagance and theft. 
Real estate, by reason of its immovable charac- 
ter, could not, like personal property, be the 
subject of larceny, but the confiscation through 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 303 

taxation, to which it was subject, made its exemp- 
tion from being stolen of little practical conse- 
quence. In 1874 2900 pieces of real estate in 
Charleston County were forfeited for taxes, and 
nearly half a million acres of land were sold for 
unjjaid taxes or forfeited to the State. 

Not only were state debts piled up, but mu- 
nicipal and county debts greatly increased also. 
Valuable franchises were lavishly granted. The 
doors of penal institutions were opened. In two 
years a single governor granted 457 pardons, and 
at the end of his term the number of convicts 
remaining in the penitentiary had dwindled to 
one third that number. Everywhere it was the 
same story — incompetency, bribery, robbery ; 
and the governmental machine was chiefly em- 
ployed as an agency of plunder. South Caro- 
lina enjoyed the evil distinction of leading in 
this hideous carnival, as she had led in the se- 
cession movement ; but in all the States where 
the newly enfranchised freedmen formed a large 
proportion of the population, corruption and 
profligacy were the rule, and in some of them 
society was rapidly approaching the point of 
dissolution. Mr. Lecky did not color the pic- 
ture too darkly when he characterized this re- 
gime as " a grotesque parody of government, a 
hideous orgy of anarchy, violence, unrestrained 
corruption, undisguised, ostentatious, insulting 



304 THADDEUS STEVENS 

robbery, such as the world had scarcely ever 



seen. 



"1 



Nor did the loss of property measure the dam- 
age which resulted. The misgovernment soon 
reached the point where it invited revolution. 
Conspicuous as is the Anglo-Saxon for his de- 
votion to law, he strives for it not as an end, 
but as an instrumentality in securing his well- 
being and bringing about progress and civiliza- 
tion. When Southern white men saw the forms 
of law undeniably employed for the destruction 
of social order and the disorganization of so- 
ciety ; when that which they regarded as a chief 
agency of civilization was used to tear it down, 
they employed violent and unlawful methods to 
overturn the regime, and forcibly took posses- 
sion of the state governments. Their power, 
however, which was sufficient for usurpation, 
was not sufficient to change the laws, some of 
which were national and beyond their control, 
and the demoralizing spectacle was witnessed 
for some years of a system of government find- 
ing a continuing basis in illegality and fraud. 
The same violence, too, which gave them control 
of the local governments gave them a political 
power in federal elections, and tainted the Presi- 
dency, the Congress, the national laws, and their 
administration, with the poisonous influences of 
^ Democracy and Liberty, 1-98. 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 305 

the fraud. It was by no means the least of the 
evil consequences of this system that law-abiding 
men in distant States were compelled to submit 
to violence as a factor in the enactment of the 
laws by which they were to be governed. 

But the immediate effect of a policy does not 
alone constitute the true measure of its wisdom. 
The working of the experiment should not be 
received unreservedly and without caution, tried 
as it was in States lying prostrate under revo- 
lution piled upon revolution. That some bad 
results followed the policy of reconstruction 
does not necessarily convict those who adopted 
it of unwise action. As well might one judge 
of an amputation by pointing only to the fever, 
the suffering, and the maimed and crippled con- 
dition, as if the previous state of the patient had 
been perfect, and the alternatives were not the 
loss of a life or the loss of a Hmb. The wisdom 
which passes judgment upon a situation a third of 
a century afterwards has an obvious advantage 
over the wisdom which is compelled to deal 
with it. We of to-day also lose sight of many 
of the difficulties with which the problem was 
surrounded, and which have disappeared in the 
distance. The choice, which Stevens and the 
statesmen associated with him were compelled 
to make, did not lie between the course actually 
adopted and an ideal condition of things. In 



306 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the light in which they acted, they were com- 
pelled to deal with as grave a national situation 
as ever existed. It was beyond the power of 
any surgery at once to deliver society, well and 
whole, from the condition in which its errors 
and crimes had placed it. 

It may be admitted that great evils would in- 
evitably result from conferring the suffrage upon 
large numbers of men who had just emerged 
from slavery, and who came of a race which 
had never been schooled in self-government. 
The real question is whether greater evils would 
not have come from adopting any other course. 
Those, four million black men were in our coun- 
try through no fault of their own. They had 
been held as unwilling slaves. It was not pos- 
sible to evade the problem by their wholesale 
deportation. They were newly endowed with 
freedom as a result not of the enlightenment of 
their masters nor of any peacefid course, but of 
one of the bloodiest and most expensive of wars. 
What would have been the condition of those 
helpless beings left without the full rights of 
citizenship and at the mercy of legislation im- 
posed by those who had ceased to own them 
only because they had been compelled to do 
so? 

Proof was not wanting that, under such con- 
ditions, the freedom of the black man would 



RECONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION 307 

have been in serious danger. If, before Con- 
gress had taken any action, and when the pro- 
visional governments were on their good beha- 
vior, such anti-negro laws were enacted as those 
to which I have alluded, what could have been 
expected if the President's policy had been 
approved and made permanent, and the States 
had been readmitted on the basis which he had 
proposed ? Was there not ground for the fear 
that freedom would soon become but little better 
than a mere name ? Even after Congress had' 
acted by a two-thirds vote, and had been suSt 
tained at the polls by an enormous majority of 
the Northern people, the fourteenth amendment 
to the Constitution, which did not involve negro 
suffrage, was contemptuously rejected by the 
Southern States. The action of the Southern 
people was probably what that of the North- 
ern people would have been under the same 
circumstances. It was doubtless entirely -na- 
tural. But would it not also have been entirely 
natural that they should be willing to secure by 
law as much as possible of what they had lost 
by war, including their right to the labpr of the 
black men whom they had claimed to own ? It 
was necessary also that the remedy should be 
rigidly prescribed by legislation, for no assist- 
, ance in the way of a discreet or friendly admin- 
istration could be expected from the President, 



308 THADDEUS STEVENS 

who was uncompromisingly opposed to any plan 
of reorganization except his own. 

Whatever path might be followed was sure to 
be surrounded with some peril. Congress took 
that course which appeared at the time to be 
attended with the slightest danger to liberty. 
The undefended rights of freedmen were indeed 
weak. Armed with the ballot they would be 
none too strong. Having exterminated slavery 
at such a tremendous cost, Congress adopted that 
policy which, under the conditions then exist- 
ing, promised the least risk to liberty. But it 
was most unfortunate that Johnson should have 
taken the place of Lincoln at a time when there 
was a more pressing demand for a man of saga- 
cious statesmanship and great popular strength 
at the Wliite House than at any time since 
the adoption of the Constitution. Lincoln had 
the wisdom to advise, and would probably have 
had the authority to secure, a system of gradual 
enfranchisement, which would have been safer 
for the country and infinitely juster to the black 
man, upon whom would not have been cruelly 
cast, suddenly and without any previous pre- 
paration, the heavy and exacting responsibilities 
of citizenship. 



CHAPTER XVII 

WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 

Stevens possessed a remarkably strong sense 
of humor under the influence of a correct taste. 
He relied little upon mere extravagance, and 
rarely dealt those " sledge-hammer blows," so 
characteristic of what Sydney Smith terms 
" wut," which dispense with the necessity of the 
more delicate surgical operation generally re- 
quired, according to the same authority, to get 
a joke through a Scotchman's head. His wit 
was light, usually genial, and in quality like the 
I autumn sunshine. It was also unfailing. When 

it suited his purpose, however, he could malfe it 
bitter, cynical and even brutal in tone. He 
never indulged in elaborately constructed scho- 
&; lastic jokes, which smell painfully of the lamp, 

and which one requites with laughter largely 
from a sense of duty, as a tribute to the dignity 
of labor. Indeed he had no time to study up 
his witticisms even if he had possessed the incli- 
nation, for he was almost constantly upon his 
feet in the House or engaged with his over- 
worked committees. 



310 THADDEUS STEVENS 

Page after page of the record of debates, while 
he was a member of the House, is lighted up by 
his sparkling answers to objections, and by his 
free, offhand, and sometimes trifling playfulness. 
He himself was a great part of what he said, and 
his wit was so unstudied and so exactly apt to 
the occasion that some use of the imagination is 
occasionally necessary to reproduce the circum- 
stances in which he spoke in order to understand 
the merriment which the record shows. Mr. 
Morrill, who was intimately associated with him 
for many years in the House, speaks of his 
" running undertone commentary," usually lost 
by the reporters, upon the business of the House, 
and of the fun which he created and which was 
" lost in the whirl of business." " Never in- 
deed," he added, " was wit of all varieties, coarse 
and fine, exhibited in more bewildering profu- 
sion. He daily wasted in this private and semi- 
grotesque distribution of mirth, sense, and sa- 
tire, often indiscriminately among friends and 
foes, a cajjital sufficient, could it have been pre- 
served, to rival almost any of the acknowledged 
masters among the colloquial wits of this or 
possibly of any age." ^ 

He was fond of telling stories to his fellow 
members. Many are the anecdotes that are told 
of him, some of them very likely of doubtful 
^ Senate Proceedings. Congressional Globe, Dec. 18, 1868. 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 311 

authenticity, but many also characteristic and 
doubtless genuine. It may not be inaj)propriate 
to give a few specimens of his humor, selected 
somewhat at random from the " Consrressional 
Globe," or as I have received them from his 
associates in the House. 

Stevens and Cameron were far from being 
warm friends. Even the State of Pennsylvania 
was not quite large enough for two such positive 
characters to associate peacefully together in the , 
leadership of the same political party. Stevens 
was informed that Lincoln was intending to ap- 
point Cameron to an important office, and he ' 
called upon the President to enter a remon- 
strance. What he said about Cameron was far 
from flattering as well also as far from definite. 
" You don't mean to say," said Lincoln, " that 
Cameron would steal?" "No," said Stevens, 
" I don't think he would steal a red-hot stove." 
This was too good for Lincoln to keep, and he 
told it to Cameron. The latter, not unnaturally, 
failed to show a keen appreciation of the humor 
of the remark, and soon afterwards a member 
of the House, who sat near Stevens, observed 
Cameron come into the hall in high dudgeon 
and enter into a very animated conversation 
with Stevens. Cameron said that he had been 
greatly injured and that Stevens should retract 
what he had said. Stevens endeavored to pacify 



312 THADDEUS STEVENS 

him, and finally consented to do what Cameron 
asked of him. He called upon Mr. Lincoln, 
and this was the manner in which he made 
amends. " Mr. Lincoln," said Stevens, " why- 
did you tell Cameron what I said to you ? " "I 
thought," said Lincoln, " that it was a good 
joke, and I didn't think it would make him 
mad." " Well," replied Stevens, " he is very 
mad and made me promise to retract. I will 
now do so. I believe I told you that I did n't 
think he would steal a red-hot stove. I now 
take that back." 

During a debate in the House a member who 
was speaking kept walking continually up and 
down the aisle, and back and forth across the 
area, under the excitement of his effort, as mem- 
bers are sometimes prone to do. After watching 
this pedestrian performance for some time Ste- 
vens checked it by calling out to the member 
by name, " Do you expect to get mileage for 
that speech? " 

In April, 1862, a fierce attack, in which Mr. 
Blair, of Missouri, was prominent, was made in 
the House upon General Fremont for certain 
alleged transactions in connection with his com- 
mand. It was enough for Stevens to know that 
Fremont was a warm friend of the slave, and he 
ardently defended him in a speech which affords 
a very good illustration of his offhand congres- 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 313 

sional manner. He made a lawyer-like reply to 
Blair, and after accusing him of overlooking 
some material testimony in his eagerness to 
blacken General Fremont, added : " Sir, such 
things in a pettifogger would be detestable, but 
in a member of this House they are respectable. 
[Much laughter.] " Mr. Blair hereupon asked : 
" What was the gentleman's remark ? I did not 
hear it." Stevens : " I said that in a member 
of the House they were respectable, and I hope 
the gentleman takes no offense at that. [Laugh- 
ter.] " 1 

Later in the same speech Stevens discussed 
the charge that one Sacchi, a member of Fre- 
mont's staff, had made a contract to provide 
horses that were never furnished, and he pro- 
ceeded to show from the testimony that Sacchi 
had had nothing to do with the contract. Mr. 
Conkling asked permission to interrupt Stevens 
with a remark, which was freely granted, and 
he then took the floor, not as might have been 
supposed to say a word about horses, but to 
indulge in a lofty flight in which he said that 
Sacchi had been " decorated for heroic action 
upon the battlefields of Italy," that he " came 
here following the Star of Freedom as the shep- 
herds followed the Star of Bethlehem," that he 
came, " in the language of another, ' to crusade 
1 Congressional Globe, April 21, 1862. 



314 THADDEUS STEVENS 

for freedom in freedom's holy land.' " This was 
too fine for Stevens, although it was upon his 
side of the case, and amid much laughter he 
punctured this magnificence and summoned the 
House back to the earth again by saying dryly, 
" It is enough for me to know that he is not the 
man who made the horse contract at all." ^ 

Upon one occasion a member who affected 
great humility and a low estimate of the value 
of his own views, which however he was willing 
to inflict upon the House at all times, had urged 
Stevens to yield him time to make a speech 
upon a certain measure. When Stevens had 
finished his own speech he said, apparently hit- 
ting off what the member in question might 
be expected to say of himself, " I now yield to 
Mr. , who will make a few feeble remarks." 

Mr. Brooks, of New York, the Democratic 
leader, had made a most carefully prepared par- 
tisan speech which ransacked history, and Ste- 
vens was expected to reply. Stevens referred 
to the gentleman's " elaborate speech, so full of 
literary and historical allusions which in super- 
ficial scholars might look like pedantry, but in 
the learned gentleman are but the natural and 
graceful overflow of a well-stored mind." He 
would not say Brooks had lied, but he did say, 
" there is nothing to the contrary but the remark 
1 Congressional Globe, April 21, 1862. 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 315 

of the gentleman from New York, which, I beg 
leave to say, is not now evidence in a court of 
justice." As to the anti - Lincoln movement 
which Brooks had discovered in the Republican 
party, Stevens said that it would not call forth 
from the President " anything more than a per- 
tinent joke." To the proposition to run McClel- 
lan for the presidency, he said that the Demo- 
crats could not be " in earnest in attempting to 
run him, as they know that he cannot raise a 
trot. He never did, when a forward movement 
was in question." 

He had banter also for his friends. Mr. 
Washburne of Illinois, a leading Republican 
member, refused to support a bill in which Ste- 
vens was interested, and persistently fought it 
upon every occasion. Stevens spoke of him as 
displaying " that kind of pertinacity which I so 
much admire when directed to a laudable object, 
but which sometimes degenerates into obstinacy 
when he is wrong ; of course I do not mean in 
the gentleman from Illinois, but in others." 

Sometimes his personal references were far 
less oblique, as will be seen from the following, 
which I sfive in the words of Mr. Dawes. " Mr. 
Maynard, of Tennessee, afterwards minister to 
Turkey and postmaster - general, although a 
native of Massachusetts and a scholar of cul- 
ture as well as an exceedingly amiable gentle- 



316 THADDEUS STEVENS 

man, yet so resembled an Indian that most 
people believed him to be at least half a one. 
One intensely hot day in July a melting sun 
was pouring in upon our heads through the 
glass ceiling, while Mr. Stevens, in nankin trou- 
sers and shirt-sleeves, was conducting the Indian 
appropriation bill through the House and was 
well-nigh worn out with the heat and fatigue. 
Mr. Maynard had been all day persistently put- 
ting him questions and opposing features of his 
bill, when some member, expressing great sym- 
pathy for Mr. Stevens, moved an adjournment 
that he might have an opportunity to rest. But 
Mr. Stevens, turning just enough towards the 
swarthy Tennessee member, remonstrated, say- 
ing : ' Mr. Speaker, I can get along well enough 
with the Indians, but these half-breeds trouble 
me 'most to death.' " ^ 

Mr. Henry Winter Davis of Maryland was a 
brilliant orator, but did not possess the fibre 
necessary to endure the blows which inevitably 
come to one who takes a prominent part in poli- 
tics. An instance of this was seen in his some- 
what petulant request to be relieved from service 
as chairman of the House Committee on Foreign 
Affairs. Stevens mildly interposed in the de- 
bate and said: " If the chairman of a committee 

^ MSS. Dawes' Dartmouth College Lecture on " Stevens as 
a Leader in a Great Crisis." 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 317 

is to consider himself personally offended when 
the House votes down propositions which he 
brings forward, some of us would have been out 
of employment long ago. Why, sir, when my 
friend here (Mr. Washburne) introduced his 
proposition to tax the stock of whiskey on hand, 
and rode triumphantly through this House upon 
the bead of the liquor, while I was completely 
submerged, I did not ask to be excused ; it was 
a gentle ducking, from which I expected to re- 
cover, hoping to come out renovated by the 
bath." 

Quotations of this character from Stevens's 
speeches in Congress could be multiplied inde- 
finitely. As he grew older his gayety of spirit 
increased, and no infirmity could restrain its 
expression. During the last months of his life 
his health was so slender that he had frequently 
to be carried about upon a chair. The solemn 
procession of the House each day from its hall 
to the Senate chamber, following the managers, 
among whom Stevens was carried, was one of 
the striking ceremonies of the impeachment. 
One day he said to the two stalwart fellows who 
bore him, " Who will carry me, boys, when you 
are dead and gone ? " 

In appearance he was tall and commanding, 
and, although somewhat slender, he had an ath- 
letic frame. His favorite exercise during most 



318 THADDEUS STEVENS 

of his life was horseback-riding, and he spent 
much of his leisure in the saddle. He was also 
fond of attending horse-races. He was an ex- 
cellent swimmer, and often swam across " Joe's 
Pond," as he called it, which he said was one 
and a half miles wide and " cold as a spring." 
He declared that he could swim the Bosphorus 
as easily as Byron did. He resembled Byron 
in another particular, for he had a club foot; 
but, unlike Byron, he did not seek to conceal 
his deformity. This appears to have only 
slightly affected his walking, — "a little lame," 
Mr. Morrill called him, — and he assisted him- 
self with a cane. He had a large mouth, thin 
upper lip, prominent aquiline nose, and massive 
head. " No stranger," said Mr. Dawes, " would 
pass him on the street without turning for a 
second look at an unmistakably great character. 
On great occasions, when his untamable spirit 
had got the mastery of him, he no longer looked 
like a man, at least like any other man I ever 
saw." 1 

While usually cold and unemotional in his 
later years, he was terribly in earnest upon the 
great public questions with which he dealt. He 
did not pursue reform because it was fashion- 
able, nor because it gave him an opportunity 

1 Dartmouth College Lecture on " Stevens as a Leader in a 
Great Crisis." 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 319 

to abuse somebody, although upon occasion few 
enjoyed that privilege more keenly. 

He was very fond of general literature, with 
the exception of fiction, and his miscellaneous 
library may be taken as illustrating his taste. 
It was rich in history and the classics, but con- 
tained few novels. He delighted especially in 
legal study, and his law library was one of the 
best in his State. During his last visit to Lan- 
caster he looked about him upon the shelves 
laden with his law-books, and said sadly, " It 's 
a pity that there is no one to keep this going." 

In his prime he was impassioned in manner, 
and in his carefully prepared speeches he exhib- 
ited a directness and energy combined with a 
terse felicity of expression for which it is diffi- 
cult to find his match among American orators. 
Nobody, said Mr. Sumner, could express more 
in fewer words, or give " to language a sharper 
bite." He aimed to express his idea in the 
fewest possible words, and never affected a ro- 
tundity of style. After the beginning of the 
war, the demands upon him were so great that 
he had little time for constructing elaborate 
orations, and his speaking was usually called 
forth by the occasion and was exactly adapted 
to it. Under these circumstances, his self- 
command and the form of his speech were re- 
markable. He was always striking and forcible, 



320 THADDEUS STEVENS 

and occasionally lie rose to the heights of spon- 
taneous eloquence, all the more effective because 
unstudied. 

During the period of his leadership in the 
House he had many personal encounters in 
debate^ and with strong and much younger men, 
like Butler, Conlding, Schenck, Garfield, and 
Blaine ; and the latter, who was so well fitted to 
speak, says that he was " a man who had the 
courage to meet any opponent, and who was 
never overmatched in intellectual conflict." Mr. 
Dawes aptly termed him "a great intellectual 
gladiator." ^ 

He exhibited a remarkable aptitude for busi- 
ness when he attended to it, but he displayed 
a noble disdain of his private interests when his 
attention was required by public affairs. This 
course, and a willingness to assume obligations 
for others, appear to have reduced him, at least 
twice in his life, to a condition of insolvency ; but 
he manfully discharged his obligations without 
taking advantage of any bankrupt law. " I feel 
that my creditors," he said, " are entitled, among 
my other worldly goods, to my labor until I am 
dead. If my debts are not paid then, the bank- 
rupt law of another world will cancel them." ^ 

^ Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 326. 
^ interview with the Washington correspondent of New 
York Tribune, printed August 14, 1868. 



WIT AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS 321 

During their invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863 
the Confederates burned his iron-works near 
Chambersburg. This reduced him to poverty 
a third time. His friends proposed to raise the 
large sum necessary to make good his loss, but, ' 
learning of the movement, he discouraged it and 
refused in advance to accept the money. Not- 
withstanding this reverse so late in life, he left 
a considerable fortune at his death. He lived 
in an unpretentious manner in a severely plain 
house in Lancaster. In Washington he lived 
with equal simplicity at a short distance from 
the Capitol. He never married. 

It is not difficult to detect the secret of Ste- 
vens's success as a parliamentary leader. His 
ability to cope with any antagonist ; his wit, 
which was employed unsparingly upon his timid 
supporters as well as upon his foes ; his invin- 
cible courage ; the facility with which he would 
sometimes make use of the enemy when his 
friends deserted him ; and his resolute adherence 
to the important lines of his great policies, es- 
tablished him in the position of leadershij) be- 
yond the reach of all competition. Mr. Blaine 
in his eulogy upon President Garfield accords 
Stevens a place among the three great parlia- 
mentary leaders in our history, naming him 
with Clay and Douglas. Clay surpassed Stevens 
in some important qualities, and notably in the 



/ 



322 THADDEUS STEVENS 

power to devise the remedies to enable the coun- 
try to pass peacefully through a great crisis. 
This however is rather an attribute of the states- 
man ; but if the foremost place as a parliamen- 
tary leader is to be given to either, it must be 
accorded to that one who, during those years 
from 1860 to 1868, crowded thick as they were 
with events unsurpassed in magnitude, unequaled 
in difficulty, never took a backward step, never 
even faltered, who embodied upon the floor of 
the House the genius of war and the genius of 
victory, and who exercised the power of com- 
mand with undiminished authority until he died. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE IMPEACHMENT 

The difference between the President and 
Congress had become so serious, and party spirit 
ran so high, that the threats to impeach him 
culminated in the presentation of three resolu- 
tions on the same day during the last session of 
the thirty-ninth Congress. But there was at 
that time no ground for impeachment which 
could appear to be sound, save to the most par- 
tisan imagination. It is only necessary to read 
the resolutions to see that the charges were 
mere sound and fury. There was, however, 
even at that early day, a large number of mem- 
bers who were in earnest in support of the im- 
peachment proposition. No definite action was 
taken during that Congress. 

The fortieth Congress would not have as- 
sembled, in the usual course of affairs, until 
December, 1867, unless called together by the 
President in extraordinary session. But since 
Congress had broken with him, and assumed as 
far as possible the government of the country, it 



324 THADDEUS STEVENS 

did not propose to permit him to exercise such 
powers as he possessed under the Constitution 
and such others as he might choose to assume, 
without some restraint upon him. It showed its 
distrust in a striking manner by passing a statute 
under which the fortieth Congress assembled on 
the fourth day of March, 1867, immediately upon 
the expiration of the thirty-ninth. By taking 
successive recesses, this session was prolonged 
until the time of the December session. 

During the short sittings before the first regu- 
lar session, Stevens continued to devote his at- 
tention to the work of reconstruction and kin- 
dred measures, and it is needless to say that 
he adhered rigidly to the lines which he had 
long before laid down. He introduced a bill to 
enforce the confiscation act, and to forfeit all 
the public lands of the Confederate States to 
the United States, as a measure in the nature 
of war indemnity, to provide homes for former 
slaves, and a fund out of which loyal claimants 
might be paid for damages to their property by 
the operations of the war. His elaborate speech 
of March 19, 1867, in support of this bill, is not 
wholly agreeable reading ; but it was entirely 
consistent with the principles he had advocated 
during the rebellion. He sarcastically gave the 
credit of the bill to Andrew Johnson, of whom 
he claimed to have been a disciple, and in order 



I 




z^ 



THE IMPEACHMENT 325 

to mark the inconsistency of " the man at the 
other end of the Avenue," as he termed the 
President, he quoted from one of the numerous 
speeches which Johnson had made, urging the 
punishment and impoverishment of traitors and 
the division and sale of their plantations. The 
President, he declared, favored confiscation 
while he was " clothed and in his right mind," 
but " Seward entered into him, and ever since 
they have been running down steep places into 
the sea." He did not believe in bloody penal- 
ties, he said, but he strongly believed in the 
justice of confiscating the estates of the leading 
rebels as a punishment for their crimes, and to 
aid in repairing the ravages of the war. He 
made a strong case out of history and the au- 
thorities for the legality of the proceeding, but 
he signally failed to sustain it as a matter of 
sound policy. 

The speech displayed a good deal of the 
lawyer, but little of the statesman. The war 
had been ended for two years, and the people of 
the South had paid the severest penalties. The 
enforcement of confiscation would not have paid 
even in the narrow financial sense. On the 
other hand, it would have produced a bitterness 
of feeling likely to survive for generations. 
Surely, if we were ever again to live as one 
nation, the time for such measures had long 



326 THADDEUS STEVENS 

gone by. It is probable that Stevens had in 
view the ultimate payment of the great pecuni- 
ary losses inflicted upon Pennsylvania by Lee's 
army, and that his demonstration was not with- 
out the purpose of securing the passage of a bill 
having that object. He concluded this speech 
with a eulogy upon Lincoln, whom he had 
usually supported, but whom his biting wit had 
not always spared. He denied that Lincoln 
would have put in force the Johnson policy of 
reconstruction ; but, if he was intending to do 
so, " that overruling Providence that so well 
guided him did not permit such a calamity to 
befall him," but " allowed him to acquire a most 
enviable reputation, and then, before there was 
a single spot upon it, ' he sailed into the fiery 
sunset and left sweet music in Cathay.' " 

The breach between the President and Con- 
gress constantly widened as the session wore on. 
Bills were passed strengthening the laws upon 
reconstruction, and they were defiantly vetoed. 
The efficiency of these measures was also much 
impaired by hostile administration. The veto 
of one of the supplementary reconstruction acts 
was made the occasion for a good deal of violent 
denunciation of the President, and for threats 
of his impeachment. Stevens was very willing 
to impeach him, but believed in the futility of 
the proceedings. " I have taken some pains," 



THE IMPEACHIVIENT 327 

he said during tlie debate of July 19, 1867, 
"to look into the position of this House and 
of the Senate, and am quite sure that there is 
power enough, first, to prevent the voting of 
the impeachment here ; and, secondly, if im- 
peachment were voted, to prevent conviction 
elsewhere." He was quite right in his estimate. 
The impeachment proceedings then, pending were 
decisively beaten in the House at.4ihe begin- 
ning of the following session, and even when^ 
the case was so greatly strengthened by the 
removal of Stanton it was not sustained by the 
Senate. 

What more effectually produced irritation in 
the minds of members than differences upon 
great policies was the course of the President 
with reference to the patronage. The distribu- 
tion of offices was a dearly-prized function of 
the member of Congress, and the majority of the 
representatives little relished the wholesale re- 
moval of their political friends and the filling 
of vacancies by their foes. They could throw 
the broad mantle of charity over any little differ- 
ence with the President upon the measures neces- 
sary to restore the Union, but when he assumed 
to appoint a postmaster who agreed politically 
with him, instead of with the member in whose 
district the office was located, outraged preroga- 
tive was apt to assert itself. In the case of the 



328 THADDEUS STEVENS 

average member, a collector came nearer home 
than the Constitution. The tenure-of-office act 
was designed to check the President in creating 
and filling vacancies in office. It reversed the 
practice established by the first Congress and 
followed without interruj^tion from that time ; 
and it cannot fairly be regarded in any other 
light than as a formidable encroachment by Con- 
gress upon the constitutional powers of the 
executive department. It was intended only for 
a particular emergency ; and after Andrew John- 
son had ceased to be a political issue, Congress 
embraced the first opportunity to recur to the 
long-sanctioned usage, and repealed the most 
obnoxious features of the measure. But none 
the less it supplied the ultimate pretext for the 
impeachment. 

The resolution, based upon the vague charges 
which had been pending during nearly the whole 
year of 1867, came up for final action in De- 
cember, and was rejected by a vote of nearly 
two to one. Stevens voted for the impeachment 
notwithstanding his belief in its futility. John- 
son was safe, and would have continued so had 
he confined himself to the stubborn use of the 
veto, and to the other methods by which he had 
endeavored to thwart the will of Confess, But 
he chose the more dangerous course, and defi- 
antly joined issue with Congress upon the tenure- 



THE IMPEACHMENT 329 

of-office act. The act required the consent of 
the Senate to removals from office, but provided 
that the members of the Cabinet should hold 
office " during the term of the President by 
whom they may have been appointed, and for 
one month thereafter, subject to removal by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate." 
There was also a provision for suspension from 
office during a recess of the Senate. If the 
Senate should subsequently concur and consent 
to the removal of the officer, the President might 
cause him to be removed ; but if the Senate 
should refuse to give its consent, the suspended 
officer should be reinstated. During the sum- 
mer of 1867, the President requested Mr. Stan- 
ton to resign his office as Secretary of War. 
There had for a long time been an absence of 
those friendly feelings between Johnson and 
Stanton that should exist between the Presi- 
dent and one of his advisers, and the harmony 
of the administration required that the antago- 
nism should come to an end. It is difficult to 
point to the exact time of the estrangement of 
the President from his Secretary. The funda- 
mental cause of the controversy between the ex- 
ecutive and Congress had been the plan of 
reconstruction first applied to North Carolina, 
and afterwards to the other Confederate States. 
Stanton, himself a leader of men, apparently 



330 THADDEUS STEVENS 

deserved to be credited with the preparation of 
this plan.^ 

Eesponsible as Stanton was for the adoption of 
the reconstruction policy of the President, he suc- 
ceeded in remaining loyal to him until that policy 
began to take on symptoms of unpopularity. But 
at last, when Congress showed itself hostile, and 
was supported in the election of 1866, the Secre- 
tary bowed to the popular will and took the con- 
gressional side. Three of his associates had re- 
signed because they could not at the same time 
remain loyal to their own ideas of public duty 
and to the President, who was their executive 
chief. Stanton's opposition did not assume that 
shape. He antagonized the President, consorted 
with his political enemies, but remained at his 
council board, and steadfastly clung to office. 
Johnson did not fail to make known his desire 
for Stanton's retirement ; but the latter was ob- 
durate to all hints, and finally, when the Presi- 
dent requested him to resign, he flatly and with 
little courtesy declined to do so. He was then 
suspended from his office, and General Grant 
temporarily took his place. 

As required by the tenure-of-office act, the 
President sent to the Senate, at its next session, 

1 See speech of James S. Wilson in House of Kepresenta- 
tives, December 6, 1867, also Messages and Papers of the Presi- 
dents, vol. vi. pp. 588, 589. 



THE IMPEACHMENT 331 

a statement of the reasons for his action. That 
body declined to sanction the removal, and Stan- 
ton was thereupon restored to his office. This 
point marked the high-water mark of the en- 
croachments of Congress upon the presidential 
power. Had Johnson submitted, the degradation 
of his office would have been complete. The 
duty prescribed by the Constitution, that the 
President should take care that the laws were 
faithfully executed, would have been an idle in- 
junction, and one impossible to be performed, if 
the necessary agents selected by him to execute 
the laws should be responsible, not to him, but to 
the Senate. There could have been no head 
nor unity to the administration of the govern- 
ment, if each of the members of the Cabinet 
should be at liberty to pursue his own peculiar 
policy, while the constitutional executive should 
be powerless to intervene, and could only sup- 
plicate the Senate for leave to dismiss an ob- 
noxious and hostile adviser. The delightful 
harmony which would naturally result from this 
system was well illustrated by the very first case 
in which it was applied. In one of the mes- 
sages which Stanton sent to the House of Re- 
presentatives, after he had been reinstated in the 
War Office, he said : " After the action of the 
Senate on his alleged reason for my suspension 
from the office of Secretary of War, I resumed 



332 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the duties of that office as required by the act of 
Congress, and have continued to discharge them 
without any personal or written communication 
with the President. No orders have been issued 
from this department in the name of the Presi- 
dent with my knowledge." 

After his restoration, Stanton refrained from 
attending the Cabinet m.eetings. He conducted 
himself as if he were the superior officer of the 
President. This system would have afforded the 
spectacle of seven little Presidents sitting about 
the Cabinet table, if they saw fit to -attend, with 
the Chief Magistrate of the Constitution present 
for ornamental purposes, and of little more prac- 
tical consequence than is the Vice-President in 
the Senate. Johnson would have been signally 
wanting in courage as well as patriotism — two 
qualities which he undeniably possessed in a 
degree only surpassed by his egotism — if he 
had tamely submitted. He played the part of a 
patriot. He did what Grant or Jackson or any 
other of our great Presidents would doubtless 
have done under similar circumstances, and on 
February 21, 1868, he issued an order summarily 
removing Stanton from the position of Secretary 
of "War. 

Stanton immediately sent a " message " to the 
House of Representatives, communicating the 
President's order. It was at once referred to 



THE IMPEACHMENT 333 

the Committee on Reconstruction. The Presi- 
dent's enemies were not slow in taking advan- 
tage of the excitement which his apparent defi- 
ance and disregard of the tenure-of-office act 
aroused. On the very next day, which was the 
birthday of Washington, Stevens reported the 
matter back to the House, with a resolution de- 
claring " that Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, be impeached of high crimes and 
misdemeanors in offi,ce." When he took the 
floor, merely to present the report, the excite- 
ment was extraordinary, and the Speaker caur 
tioned the members of the House as well as the 
crowded galleries against demonstrations of ap- 
proval or disapproval, and announced that he 
had called upon the police to aid the officers of 
the House in preserving order. In the heated 
debate which followed, it was seen that the 
President had no defenders in the Republican 
party.^ Wilson, who had so boldly and effect- 
ively opposed impeachment on the grounds upon 
which it was urged in December, now supported 
the resolution. The discussion lacked no ele- 
ment of excitement which partisanship cordd 

^ The prevailing' opinion in the Republican party was doubt- 
less expressed in a telegram, which was read in the debate, 
from the Governor of Illinois, in which he said : " His treason 
must be checked. . . . The peace of the country is not to be 
trifled with by this presumptuous demagogue. . . . Millions 
of loyal hearts are panting to stand by the stars and stripes." 



334 THADDEUS STEVENS 

impart to it. The President was stigmatized 
as a traitor, demagogue, and criminal. He was 
denounced as a usurper, and, with hardly an 
ideal consistency, by some of the very gentle- 
men who had been industriously voting for 
two years to strip his office of its constitutional 
powers. 

The debate was closed on February 24 by 
Stevens, in a speech which was a bitter attack 
upon the President, and hardly less so upon Gen- 
eral Grant. He declared that " the high crimes 
and misdemeanors," which the Constitution made 
the grounds of impeachment, did not mean in- 
dictable crimes only. Impeachment was "a 
purely political proceeding," — a remedy " for 
malfeasance in office, and to prevent the contin- 
uance thereof." " The people desire no victim," 
said he, "and they will endure no usurper." 
Johnson, he said, had taken an oath faithfully 
to execute the laws, and he could not plead ex- 
emption from its obligation " on account of his 
condition at the time it was administered to 
him." He had violated this oath when he first 
removed Stanton and appointed General Grant. 
The testimony of both Johnson and Grant made 
this clear. The only question at issue was, 
whether Grant was a party to the conspiracy, 
and upon that point Stevens confessed to indif- 
ference. The resolution passed by a vote of 126 



THE IMPEACHMENT 335 

to 47, and for the first time since the founda- 
tion of the government the representatives of 
the people had invoked the great remedy of im- 
peachment against the Chief Executive of the 
nation. 

Upon the motion of Mr. Stevens, a committee 
of two was appointed to appear at the bar of the 
Senate and impeach the President. He was 
made chairman of this committee. He was the 
first to throw down the gauntlet when, at the 
December session of 1865, he had forestalled 
the President's message upon reconstruction by 
making, in advance of its reception, his famous 
motion with reference to the senators and re- 
presentatives from the Southern States. In the 
long and bitter struggle with the Executive, 
Stevens had been the acknowledged congres- 
sional leader. When the President singled him 
out for attack, he instinctively recognized in him 
his own most dangerous foe. It was most fit- 
ting, therefore, that the first declaration of im- 
peachment made to the Senate should be made 
in the name of the House of Representatives by 
Thaddeus Stevens. 

On February 25, he and his associate upon 
the committee went before the Senate. His 
health was at the time hopelessly broken ; but he 
gathered strength from the transcendent occa^ 
sion, and the hushed and expectant audience 



336 THADDEUS STEVENS 

drank in every syllable of liis great message. 
He had framed it tersely, with the art of a great 
lawyer, and every word flew straight to its mark. 
He spoke it with a solemnity and force that 
thrilled the listener. " I doubt," said Sumner, 
" if words were ever delivered with more effect. 
. . . Who can forget his steady, solemn utter- 
ance of this great arraignment? The words 
were few, but they will sound through the ages." ^ 
He was conscious that he was performing a 
great public act, which had never before been 
performed in our history, and his manner no less 
than his words fitly betokened it. " Mr. Presi- 
dent," said Stevens, " in obedience to the order 
of the House of Representatives, we appear 
before you, and in the name of the House of 
Representatives and of all the people of the 
United States, we do impeach Andrew Johnson, 
President of the United States, of high crimes 
and misdemeanors in office ; and we further in- 
form the Senate that the House of Representa- 

^ The Globe, December 18, 1868. The conclusion of Sum- 
ner's speech, which was a eulogy upon Stevens, is well worth 
quotrag. " Already he takes his place among illustrious 
names, which are the common property of mankind. I see 
him now, as I have so often seen him during life. His ven- 
erable form moves slowly and with uncertain steps ; but the 
gathered strength of years is in his countenance and the light 
of victory on his path. Politician, calculator, time-server, 
stand aside ! A hero statesman passes to his reward." 



THE IMPEACHMENT 337 

tives will in due time exhibit particular articles 
of impeachment against him, and make good 
the same; and in their name we demand that 
the Senate take order for the appearance of the 
said Andrew Johnson to answer said impeach- 
ment." 

Stevens was chosen a member of the commit- 
tee to prepare articles of impeachment, and also 
one of the managers to present the case to the 
Senate. He would probably have been selected 
as the leading manager, but his physical condi- 
tion rendered him absolutely unable to discharge 
the duties of that position. The sickness was 
upon him from which he had so often rallied, 
but it was now destined to increase until he 
died. He was not able to perform the ordinary 
work of a representative, much less to take 
charge of the most important trial of the cen- 
tury. His mind, however, shone brightly, al- 
though fitfully, and his dauntless will would not 
let him yield. When he was too weak to walk, 
he was carried into the Senate chamber ; and 
when he was too weak to talk, his fellow-man- 
agers would read his words. 

Among the managers were some able lawyers. 
Next to Stevens, who would have been over- 
matched by no lawyer on either side, the ablest 
advocate among them was Butler, who^ although 
not profound in his knowledge of law, had few 



338 THADDEUS STEVENS 

equals, and probably no superior, at the bar in 
readiness, ingenuity, and the ability to overwhelm 
an antagonist with ridicule and abuse. The 
trial, however, did not prove an advantageous 
field for the display of his peculiar talents. 
Boutwell was a sound lawyer, a man of great 
industry, and probably contributed more towards 
making the impeachment successful than any 
other of the managers. Wilson, also, added 
strength to the prosecution ; but the remaining 
managers, although able men, did not deserve to 
take high rank as lawyers. 

The advantage in legal talent lay decidedly 
with the President. Every one of his five coun- 
sel was an experienced and able advocate, but 
the two men who stood out conspicuously among 
them were Benjamin R. Curtis and William M. 
Evarts. Curtis was a profound lawyer, who had 
served with distinction on the Supreme Bench of 
the United States, and in his youth had taken 
almost the highest rank at a bar of which Daniel 
Webster and Rufus Choate were the leaders. 
There was at that time no more accomplished 
advocate at the American bar than Evarts. He 
displayed remarkable sagacity in the manage- 
ment of a trial, was ready and eloquent, and in 
a bantering wit he reminded one strongly of 
Stevens when the latter was In his more genial 
moods. The charges contained in the articles 



THE IMPEACHMENT 339 

might pass in the superheated atmosphere, and 
amid the clamor, of a partisan House, but they 
had now to endure the scrutiny of great and hos- 
tile counsel. 

Such an array as appeared for the President 
had little difficulty in laying bare the substance 
of the articles, and in showing how much of them 
had legal merit, and how much was suited merely 
to a " political proceeding." Indeed, the trial 
had not proceeded far before the practical wis- 
dom of Stevens's "political proceeding" theory 
was made manifest by the necessities of his case. 
If the Senate was a court, bound by those salu- 
tary rules of law which govern in judicial tribu- 
nals, if the " high crimes and misdemeanors," of 
which the President must be proven guilty, were 
to be fit companions of the treason and bribery 
mentioned with them in the Constitution, then 
there was very little substance in the charges of 
the House. 

The article based upon the buffoonery con- 
tained in some of the President's speeches, and 
his undignified attacks upon members of Con- 
gress, was easily ridiculed out of court by Mr. 
Evarts ; for he had ready to his hand the report 
of the debates of the House of Representatives, 
which showed how Mr. Manager Butler and 
Mr. Manager Bingham had abused each other 
in the presence of the House with a directness 



340 THADDEUS STEVENS 

and vigor wliicli, by comparison, made the Presi- 
dent's efforts at scurrility sink into insignifi- 
cance. 

The only charge that seemed to possess legal 
merit grew out of the removal of Stanton and 
the alleged violation of the tenure-of-office act, 
and the struggle soon centred upon the articles 
in which that was involved. That charge, as a 
basis of impeachment, failed to survive the great 
legal argument with which for two days Curtis 
held the attention of the Senate. His extraor- 
dinary speech was none the less effective because 
it was made for the severe practical purpose 
of influencing the judgment of the judges, and 
because, after he had presented his reasons, he 
took his seat without invoking the past or poster- 
ity, or making any elaborate effort at a perora- 
tion. 

The President had removed Stanton accord- 
ing to the construction placed upon the Consti- 
tution by the first Congress, of which one third 
of the f ramers of that instrument were members. 
That construction had been followed without de- 
viation for nearly ninety years, and until Con- 
gress in its struggle with Johnson attempted to 
reverse it by the passage of the tenure-of-office 
act. It has since, too, been reestablished ; for 
so soon as the presidency of Johnson ended, the 
act was substantially repealed, so far as it was 



THE IMPEACHMENT 341 

involved in the controversy.^ In determining 
what were his constitutional duties, the Presi- 
dent woidd have been justified in following the 
construction established by Washington and 
Madison, and sanctioned by uninterrupted usage 
during our whole history, rather than the con- 
struction imposed by his enemies for the pur- 
pose of curtailing his powers. But his defense 
stood upon even safer ground. As the guardian 
and trustee of the powers of his office, the pre- 
servation of which was vital to the whole nation, 
could he have done less than regard the consti- 
tutionality of the act as doubtful, and, by mak- 
ing a test case, have the question submitted for 
decision to the Supreme Court? Yet the per- 
formance of this obvious duty was charged 
against him as a " high crime and misdemean- 
or," for which he deserved removal from office. 

But admitting that the President was bound 
to accept the tenure-of -office act as constitutional 
and to obey Its provisions, it was far from clear 
that he had violated it. Cabinet officers were 
exempted from the general terms of the act, and 
it was provided as to them that they should hold 
" during the term of the President by whom they 

1 "As matter of fact, a Eepublican Congress, largely com- 
posed of the same members who had enacted the law, indi- 
rectly confessed two years later that it coiild not be main- 
tained." Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, vol. ii. p. 274. 



342 THADDEUS STEVENS 

may have been appointed, and for one month 
thereafter, subject to removal by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate." The coun- 
sel for the President strongly took the position 
that Stanton did not come under the provisions 
of the act, and he could be removed by Johnson. 
He had been appointed by Lincoln during his first 
term, and if Lincoln were living he could remove 
this Secretary during his second term. But the 
case was even stronger with regard to Johnson, 
who could reasonably claim that he was serving a 
term of his own, during which Stanton had never 
been appointed, and could therefore be removed 
at pleasure. Was the President, then, to be im- 
peached because he put this rational construc- 
tion upon the law, — a construction, too, identical 
with that which supporters of the law in Con- 
gress had put upon it, as shown by the debates 
at the time of its passage ? 

I have referred somewhat in detail to the es- 
sential point in the controversy, because the arti- 
cle in which it was stated with the greatest force 
was apparently drawn by Stevens himself.^ Al- 
though he had prudently emphasized the politi- 
cal feature of impeachment, in view of the scar- 

^ See Stevens's speech, Supplement to Congressional Globe, 
2d session, 40th Congress, p. 320. Hon. George S. Boutwell 
also informed me that the most important article was drawn 
by Stevens. The statement appears in newspapers of that day. 



THE IMPEACHMENT 343 

city of sounder material in his case, he devoted 
his energies to proving that the President had 
committed a high misdemeanor. When the 
original articles had been reported to the House, 
he urged the insertion of a new article. On the 
charges as they then stood, he declared that the 
President's lawyers would secure his acquittal, 
unless " they are greener than I was in any case 
I ever undertook before the court of quarter 
sessions." An additional article was subse- 
quently adopted. Upon that article Stevens 
made the only public contribution to the trial 
which he was able to make. 

He prepared his speech with great care, but 
it was not so strong or sustained an argument 
as he was in the habit of making. Its vigor was 
undoubtedly somewhat lessened by the condition 
of his health ; yet it was the most lawyer-like 
argument made on his side of the cause, and was 
utterly lacking in the cheap political buncombe 
with which some of the managers disfigured 
their addresses. After standing for a few min- 
utes his strength gave out, and he was forced to 
resume his chair. He spoke for nearly half an 
hour from his seat, when his voice became inau- 
dible, and the reading of his speech was con- 
cluded by General Butler. He argued that 
Jolmson was serving as President in Lincoln's 
term, and that therefore Stanton's case came 



344 THADDEUS STEVENS 

strictly within the terms of the proviso of the 
act, as Stanton had been appointed by Lincoln. 
If Stanton was not covered by the proviso, then 
he came under the general scope of the act. In 
either alternative it would require the consent 
of the Senate to remove him. 

This speech, so painfully made, represents the 
only part which Stevens took in the actual trial 
of the case. He had come to believe that the 
President would be convicted. " He will be 
condemned," Stevens predicted, "and his sen- 
tence inflicted without turmoil, tumult, or blood- 
shed, and the nation will continue its accustomed 
course of freedom and prosjaerity." This predic- 
tion appeared well founded. In a total member- 
ship of fifty-four senators, there were only eight 
Democrats, and, after adding to them those sen- 
ators who usually supported the President, the 
Republicans outnumbered the combination by 
nearly four to one. Only two thirds were neces- 
sary to convict. In the partisan tempest that 
was then raging, it did not seem possible that a 
number of the constant Republican senators, 
within one as great as the entire Democratic 
membership, would be willing to step outside of 
their party ranks and vote for acquittal. 

The test came upon the strongest article, which 
was the one advocated by Stevens. The friends 
of impeachment secured a vote ordering the 



THE IMPEACHMENT 345 

eleventh article to be read first. When the vote 
was taken, it was found that the President 
was supported by seven Republican senators. 
Thirty-five senators declared for conviction, and 
nineteen for acquittal; and by the narrowest 
possible margin the President had escaped con- 
viction. A vote was taken upon two other arti- 
cles, but it was found that the prosecution had 
mustered its fidl strength upon the eleventh 
article, and the Senate, sitting as a court of 
impeachment, adjourned without day. 

While the greater number of those who sought 
to impeach the President were firmly convinced 
of the justice of their cause, there can be little 
doubt as to the wisdom of the verdict. Had 
the extreme political theory of the proceeding 
prevailed, which was most strongly advocated by 
Charles Sumner, the balance established by the 
Constitution would have been completely de- 
stroyed. When a majority of the House and 
two thirds of the Senate happened at any time 
to differ politically from the President, it would 
be in their power absolutely to control the gov- 
ernment of the country, and the functions of 
the President as an independent officer would be 
obliterated. It was a fortunate circumstance 
that the Senate contained great lawyers like 
Trumbull and Fessenden, who were wise enough 
to judge rightly, and great enough to cast aside 



346 THADDEUS STEVENS 

partisanship upon a question of such transcend- 
ent importance, and consult the interests instead 
of the passions of the people. 

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson is in- 
evitably contrasted with the impeachment of 
Warren Hastings, and the contrast is certainly 
great. The celebrated English trial was almost 
wholly spectacular, and was a fit subject for the 
fine writing Macaulay bestowed upon it half a 
century afterwards. The production of so im- 
posing a spectacle appears to have absorbed all 
the energies of the British constitution, and to 
have paralyzed for the time the Anglo-Saxon 
talent for the administration of justice. Each 
trial partook much of the times, and the form 
of government, under which it occurred. The 
one was apparently conducted for ceremonial 
purposes, the other for practical effect. The 
charges against Hastings were concealed under 
five hundred pages of verbiage ; those against 
the American President covered less than two 
pages of the " Congressional Globe." The 
trial of the former began in 1788 and ended in 
1795. During this interval one third of the one 
hundred and sixty lords who attended the open- 
ing of the case had died ; and when the tribunal 
finally met to record the judgment of posterity 
upon the evidence, the number of judges who 
retained sufficient interest to vote upon the 




/? 



") 



/z^^'Ai-T^^.^-r 



THE IMPEACHMENT ^47 

charges had dwindled to twenty-nine. In the 
American trial, less than sixty days elapsed from 
the time when the ease of the House was opened 
until the Senate dissolved as a court of impeach- 
ment. During that period the interest had gone 
on increasing not merely in the Senate chamber, 
but in every portion of the country whose chief 
ruler was on trial, and at the end every one of 
the judges recorded his verdict. 

The trial of Hastings was made memorable 
by the great parliamentary orators who repre- 
sented the Commons. But its spectacular char- 
acter is not wanting here. The eloquence of 
Burke, Sheridan, and Fox would undoubtedly 
decorate any historic occasion, but not one of 
them ever took high rank as a lawyer. They 
were admirably fitted to set in motion the smell- 
ing-bottles in the gallery, as Macaulay records, 
and to cause some hysterical lady to be carried 
out in a fit; but they were not the men one 
would choose to conduct a case that was to be 
governed by the rules of evidence received in 
the law courts. For a good deal of their speak- 
ing, too, we must take the account that tradition 
gives us. Modern methods of reporting were 
then unknown. But the lawyers who conducted 
the Johnson trial were not permitted to write 
out the polished periods of their speeches, a 
year after they had been delivered, in order to 



348 THADDEUS STEVENS 

thrill posterity. What was said was taken down 
each day by stenographers, and appeared in cold 
type the next morning ; and the report presents 
to us the accurate picture of great lawyers con- 
tending in a great cause, and bringing to bear 
upon the minds of the judges, according to the 
rules of law, every consideration that could pro- 
perly influence their verdict. The impeachment 
of Hastings enriched literature, and will stand 
as a splendid historical pageant ; but it signally 
failed in its great and essential purpose. The 
proceeding against Johnson was severely and 
successfully devoted to the one object which gave 
it an excuse for being, the trial of a President 
charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. 
The American impeachment trial was majestic 
in its simplicity ; it was eloquent in its direct 
purpose ; it was too great for the tinsel and 
trappings of ceremony ; and in the example 
which it gave to mankind of the peaceful at- 
tempt to remove the chief ruler of the greatest 
of republics, and of quiet and orderly submis- 
sion to the result, it was wholly in line with 
those other wonderful pi^actical contributions 
which that nation has made to the progress of 
the world. 



CHAPTER XIX 

LAST DAYS 



Stevens was profoundly disappointed at the 
acquittal of the President, and for a time he 
appears to have taken a sombre view of the 
future of the country. But he soon regainetl 
his accustomed gayety of spirit. He attended 
the sessions of the House when he was able to 
do so, and, although his health was constantly 
growing feebler and his strength was nearly 
exhausted, he took a considerable part in the 
routine j)roceedings. On July 7, but little more 
than a month before his death, he introduced 
five additional articles of impeaclunent, appar- 
ently for the chief purpose of enabling him to 
review, in one of the longest speeches of his 
later years, the law of impeachments, and to ex- 
press his dissatisfaction with the Senate and the 
rulings of the chief justice. 

On July 16, he introduced a resolution look- 
ing to the acquirement of a naval station and 
depot in the West Indies. He supported it 
with a brief speech, in the course of which he 



350 THADDEUS STEVENS 

paid a striking tribute to the sovereigns of Rus- 
sia. "I look upon the rulers," said he, "who 
have held the destinies of that great nation since 
the time of Peter the Great as the most remark- 
able race of sovereigns that ever sat upon a 
throne. The later members of that dynasty, for 
wisdom and justice, are quite equal to any of 
their predecessors. They had a very difficult 
nation to construct into " an empire composed of 
Cossacks, Calmucks, and many millions of serfs. 
The Czar had accomplished a great revolution 
without civil war, and " with patience, courage, 
and uncommon wisdom " he had " made every 
man within his empire free." 

On July 27, Congress took a recess until Sep- 
tember. Stevens was too weak and worn to 
stand the trip to Lancaster, and he remained in 
Washington, with the hope of gaining strength 
for the journey. His vitality had been so great 
that it had more than once enabled him, after 
a little rest, to rally from the weakness which 
his tremendous labors in Congress had brought 
upon him. At last, however, the hopes of him- 
self and his friends were destined not to be real- 
ized. His cheerfulness remained with him, and 
his courage, which no misfortune could daunt. 
" I am going to die, like Nicanor, in harness," 
he said to a friend within a few months of his 
death ; " I mean to die hurrahing." This was a 



I 



LAST DAYS 351 

favorite expression with him, and the meaning 
which he gave to it was very likely original with 
himself. He intended to keep up the fight mitil 
the last. " You have changed my medicine ? " 
he said to the physician a few days before he 
died. " Yes," replied the doctor. " Well," re- 
plied Stevens grimly, and with a smile, "this is 
a square fight." He had about him, to care for 
his wants, his two nephews, one of whom bore 
his name, a few family friends, and two Sisters 
of Charity, who had watched over him in his 
former illness. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 
August 11, he was very weak. He could talk 
but little, but that little was almost wholly upon 
public matters. He said that Seward had done 
"very well recently in relation to our foreign 
affairs. His purchase of Alaska was the big- 
gest thing in his life, and, if he could have pur- 
chased Samana, it would have been the crowning 
event of his whole career." He expressed the 
opinion that Evarts, who was then the attorney- 
general, was " not only a sound lawyer but a 
statesman," and that he woidd advise Johnson 
" so to administer the laws as to render unneces- 
sary a meeting of Congress in September. If 
he does, I shall feel prouder than ever that I 
uro-ed his confirmation." He talked with his 
nephew, who had just arrived from Pennsylva- 
nia, about his iron furnace and also gave him 



352 THADDEUS STEVENS 

some very clear instructions about a lawsuit in 
which he was engaged. 

Two colored clergymen called, and asked 
leave to see Stevens and pray with him. He 
ordered them to be admitted ; and when they 
had come to his bedside, he turned and held 
out his hand to one of them. They sang a 
hymn and prayed. During the prayer he re- 
sponded twice, but could not be understood. 
Soon afterwards the Sisters of Charity prayed, 
and he seemed deeply affected. The doctor told 
him that he was dying. He made a motion with 
his head, but no other reply. One of the Sisters 
asked leave to baptize him, and it was granted, 
but whether by Stevens or his nephew is not 
clear. She performed the ceremony with a glass 
of water, a portion of which she poured upon his 
forehead. It was then within ten minutes of 
midnight, and the end was to come before the 
beginning of the new day. He lay motionless 
for a few minutes, then opened his eyes, took 
one look, placidly closed them, and, without a 
struggle, the great commoner had ceased to 
breathe. 

Stevens died on Tuesday, August 11, 1868. 
The Republican primaries in Lancaster County 
for the nomination of the member of Congress 
had been called for the Saturday of that week. 
No candidates dared to show themselves while 



i 



LAST DAYS 353 

the body of the representative whom the people 
loved was yet unburied. Although they knew 
that he was no more, a common impulse inspired 
them ; and when the votes were counted, it was 
found that all had been cast for Thaddeus 
Stevens. 

His body was buried in a humble cemetery 
in the city of his home. His choice of the spot 
grew out of his unswerving devotion to the 
cause which lay close to his heart during every 
moment of his life. Upon the monument which 
has been reared may be read the following in- 
scription, prepared by himself : " I repose in 
this quiet and secluded sj)ot, not from any natu- 
ral preference for solitude, but, finding other 
cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I 
have chosen this, that I might illustrate in my 
death the principles which I advocated through 
a long life, [the] Equality of Man before his 
Creator." 

His epitaph well indicates his chief distinction. 
A truer democrat never breathed. Equality was 
the animating principle of his life. He deemed 
no man so poor or friendless as to be beneath 
the equal protection of the laws, and none so 
powerful as to rise above their sway. Privilege 
never had a more powerful nor a more consistent 
foe. 



( 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, convention to op- 
pose, meets at Harrisburg, 48-51 ; 
value of their work, 133 ; their 
narrrowness, arrogance, and vio- 
lence, 133 ; really fail to impress 
North, 133, 134. 

Adams, Charles Francis, proposes 
constitutional amendment to pre- 
vent abolition of slavery, 122. 

Adams, John Quincy, his conspicu- 
ousness in House of Representa- 
tives, 66. 

Adams, Professor, at Dartmouth 
College, 13. 

Alabama, contract labor laws in, 
against negroes, 252 ; carpet-bag 
government in, 301. 

Alexander II. of Russia, eulogized 
by Stevens, 350. 

Allen, Charles, in House in 1849, 
69 ; supports Stevens for spealser, 
86. 

Anderson, Thomas L., in Congress 
in 1859, ridiculed by Stevens, 99. 

Anti-Masonic party, its origin, 29; 
organized in New York and Penn- 
sylvania, 29, 30 ; its failure as a 
national party, 30 ; attempts to 
crush Masons in Pennsylvania le- 
gislature, 31-33, 34, 46 ; carries 
Pennsylvania for Ritner in 1835, 
46. 

Ashley, John M., proposes thir- 
teenth amendment, 225. 

Ashmun, George, in House, in 1849, 
69. 

Bank of United States, chartered 
by Pennsylvania, 47 ; its branches 



prohibited in Democratic States, 
47. 

Bar, conditions of success at, in 
1820, 26. 

Black, Jeremiah S., forces Buclianan 
to alter his policy in ISGl, 118, 
119 ; made secretary of state, 119 ; 
on Stevens's legal ability, 202. 

Bingham, John A., on Committee 
on Reconstruction, 259 ; wishes 
to join amnesty with reconstruc- 
tion, 290 ; abuses Butler in de- 
bate, 339. 

Blair, Francis P., his theory of 
status of Confederate States con- 
troverted by Stevens, 236 ; at- 
tacks Fremont, 312 ; retort of Ste- 
vens to, 313. 

Border States, save Republican 
party m 1862, 221. 

Boutwell, George S., on Committee 
on Reconstruction, 259 ; a man- 
ager of Jolmsou impeaclmient, 
338. 

Breckenridge, John C, candidate of 
slavery extensionists in 1860, 113. 

Brooks, James, raises question of 
status of reconstructed States, 
257 ; retorts of Stevens to, 258, 
314, 315. 

Buchanan, James, advises Stevens 
in 1827 to support Jackson, 28 ; 
his unfitness to meet the crisis in 
1861, 116 ; his message on seces- 
sion, 116, 117 ; forced to alter his 
policy, 118 ; sends message tlireat- 
ening resistance to secession, 119 ; 
attacked by Stevens, 124-126. 

Blaine, James G., on Stevens's rhe- 



356 



INDEX 



torical accuracy, 16 ; on his un- 
questioned leadersliip of the 
House in 1861, 138 ; urges combi- 
nation of reconstruction with am- 
nesty, 290 ; aids Stevens to force 
through Reconstruction Act, 292 ; 
on Stevens's abUity in debate, 
320, 321. 
Butler, Benjamin F., a manager of 
Johnson impeachment, 337; abuses 
Bingham in debate, 339; reads 
Stevens's speech, 343. 

California, settlement and organ- 
ization of, 72, 73 ; asks admission 
as a free State, 73. 

Cameron, Simon, supported by Ste- 
vens in Republican National Con- 
vention of 1860, 112 ; withdraws, 
then reenters contest for seat in 
Lincoln's cabinet, 136 ; witty re- 
marli of Stevens upon, 311, 312. 

Cass, Lewis, resigns from Buch- 
anan's cabinet, 118. 

Champneys, Benjamin, displaced by 
Stevens from leadership of Lan- 
caster bar, 59. 

Chase, Salmon P., reduces Lincoln's 
estimates of war expenses, 141; 
struggles to avoid a deficit, 142 ; 
his error in not recommending 
taxation, 143 ; estimate of his 
character and ability as a finan- 
cier, 143, 144 ; attempts to bor- 
row in 1861, 153 ; aided by banlis, 
154 ; urged by banks not to dam- 
age their coin reserves, 155 ; insists 
on paying government creditors 
in specie, 156 ; reports failure of 
revenue law, 158 ; wishes to es- 
cape responsibility of legal-tender 
issue, 170 ; urges national bank- 
ing system, 174 ; expects a short 
war, 175 ; does not at first recom- 
mend taxation, 175 ; slow to recog- 
nize its necessity, 176 ; hesitates 
to ask for increased taxes, 177 ; 
recommends law restricting gold 
transactions, 208. 

Chiriqui Improvement Company, 



corrupt appropriation for, de- 
feated by Stevens, 107-109. 

Clay, Henry, asks Stevens's sup- 
port in 1844, 62 ; introduces Com- 
promise measures of 1850, 74 ; at- 
tacked by Stevens, 84 ; compared 
with Stevens as a parliamentary 
leader, 322. 

Clemens, Jeremiah, retort of Ste- 
vens to, 103. 

Cobb, HoweU, in House in 1849, 69 ; 
Democratic candidate for speaker, 
70, 71 ; declares secession irrevo- 
cable, 129. 

Colfax, Schuyler, opposes direct tax 
upon land, 147. 

Compromise of 1850, introduced by 
Clay, 74, 75 ; opposed by all sides, 
75 ; defeated in form of Omnibus 
bill, 85 ; finally passed, 85, 86 ; its 
effect, 86. 

Conkling, Roscoe, opposes tax on 
land, 147 ; opposes issue of legal- 
tender notes, 160 ; his financial 
scheme condemned by Stevens, 
165 ; introduces resolutions of in- 
quiry as to responsibility for de- 
feat at Ball's Bluff, 192, 193 ; in- 
troduces resolution to aid States 
in compensated emancipation, 216; 
on Committee on Reconstruction, 
259 ; sarcasm of Stevens upon, 
314. 

Constitution, in relation to fugitive 
slaves, 20, 74 ; tends to prevent 
development of statesmen, 69 ; in 
relation to slavery, 76-85 ; atti- 
tude of Republican party toward, 
104 ; Buchanan's theory of seces- 
sion under, 117 ; proposals to 
amend, to prevent secession, 121- 
123 ; its relation to legal tender, 
163-165 ; strained by North dur- 
ing civil war, 187 ; considered as 
set aside in South, by Stevens, 
188, 191, 200-202, 229 ; in case of 
West Virginia, 188-191 ; in regard 
to military power of President, 
193 ; in relation to suspension of 
habeas corpus, 194, 195 ; in rela- 



INDEX 



357 



tion to draft, 196; amended by 
abolition of slavery, 226 ; question 
of its relation to reconstruction, 
229-240, 261, 262, 266; amend- 
ments to, proposed, 260 ; four- 
teenth amendment to, introduced 
by Stevens, 271, 272; fourteenth 
amendment of, rendered ineffica- 
cious to guarantee negro suffrage, 
295, 296 ; necessarily neglected in 
reconstruction, 297, 298 ; In rela- 
tion to tenure-of-ofBce act, 328, 
331, 332, 340-342 ; in relation to 
impeachment, 334, 339, 345. 

Corwin, Thomas, suggests a com- 
promise in 1860 preventing aboli- 
tion in the district of Columbia, 
121 ; derided by Stevens, 126. 

Crittenden, J. J., introduces reso- 
lution declaring object of war, 
148. 

Curtis, Benjamin R., counsel for 
Johnson in impeachment case, 
338 ; his argument, 340. 

Dartmouth College, its early pro- 
sperity, 13 ; its faculty, 13, 14 ; 
course of study at, 14, 15 ; Ste- 
vens's connection with, 15, 16. 

Dawes, H. L., describes Stevens's 
speech on slavery in 1861, 127, 
128 ; on legal fictions in creation 
of West Virginia, 189; on Ste- 
vens's personal appearance, 318 ; 
on his ability as a debater, 320. 

Davis, Henry Winter, introduces 
Congressional plan of reconstruc- 
tion, 234 ; his sensitiveness ridi- 
culed by Stevens, 316, 317. 

Davis, Jefferson, elected President 
of Confederate States, 129, 130. 

Democratic party, in Pennsylvania, 
urges governor not to prevent re- 
peal of free-school act, 36 ; in 
other States, prohibits branches of 
United States Bank, 47 ; controls 
Pennsylvania constitutional con- 
vention, 47 ; its contest with 
Whigs for control of Pennsylvania 
legislature, 51-53; attacks state 



arsenal, 52 ; defied by Stevens as 
rebels, 53; defeats Whigs in 
" Buckshot War," 53 ; expels Ste- 
vens from House, 54 ; in Con- 
gress in 1850, opposes admission 
of California, 75 ; considered de- 
stroyed by Stevens, 87 ; elects 
Pierce in 1852, 88 ; defied by Ste- 
vens, 103, 104 ; broken up by 
quarrel of Douglas and Buchanan, 
110, 111 ; feeble in Congress after 
18G1, 138 ; denounced by Stevens 
for hindering war, 196, 197 ; de- 
nounces war as for abolition, 218, 
219 ; makes great gains in Con- 
gress, 220 ; hopes to defeat Lin- 
coln for reelection, 224 ; badly 
beaten in election of 1864, 226 ; 
demands admission of members 
from reconstructed States, 256, 
257 ; accused by Stevens of for- 
ging Johnson's speeches, 268 ; 
beaten in elections of 1866, 284. 

Douglas, Stephen A., opposes Buch- 
anan's Kansas policy, 110, 113; 
hated by South, 111 ; his power 
as a speaker, 111 ; his party op- 
poses extension of slavery, 113. 

Dred Scott decision, its effect, 102. 

Dwight, Timothy, on entrance re- 
quirements for Yale College, 14. 

Election of 1860, its significance, a 
triumph of slavery restriction. 
Its, 114. 

England, question of its neutrality 
discussed by Stevens, 184, 185. 

Evarts, William M., counsel for 
Johnson in impeachment case, 
3.38 ; ridicules articles of impeach- 
ment, 339 ; praised by Stevens, 
351. 

Farragut, Admiral David G., ac- 
companies Johnson " round the 
circle," 281. 

Fessenden, William P., reports plan 
of reconstruction to Senate, 273 ; 
votes against impeachment of 
Johnson, 345. 



358 



INDEX 



Financial history, deficit after panic 
of 1S5T, 104 ; tariff act of 1860, 
105, 106 ; war estimates of Lin- 
coln and Chase, 139-141 ; difficul- 
ties of increasing revenue, 141 ; 
amoimt of new revenue necessary 
to carry on war and meet deficit, 
142, 143 ; position of Chase in Ms- 
tory of treasury, 143, 144 ; pas- 
sage of loan bill, 144 ; preparation 
and passage of revenue bill, 145- 
148 ; details of taxation, 146, 147 ; 
decline of government credit, 153 ; 
loan of 1861 aided by patriotic 
bankers, 153-155 ; refusal of 
Chase to permit banks to safe- 
guard their coin reserves, 155, 
156 ; resulting suspension by 
banks in December, 156 ; error of 
Chase in thus hastening collapse 
of banks, 157 ; failure of revenue 
law to meet expectations, 158 ; es- 
timates for 1863, 158, 159 ; first 
issue of legal-tender notes, 160- 

167 ; renewed issue called for, 167 ; 
Stevens's criticism of Senate 
amendments to legal-tender act, 

168 ; discussion of wisdom of issue 
of legal tender, 169, 170 ; their 
issue a result of necessity, 171 i 
their evil effects seen since the 
war, 172, 173 ; summary of loans 
passed, 174 ; national banks and 
their success, 174, 175 ; reluc- 
tance of Chase to recommend tax- 
ation, 175 ; opposition in Con- 
gress to any increase in taxes, 
175, 176 ; poUcy of Chase to tax 
for merely ordinary expenditures 
and interest on debt, 176, 177 ; 
adoption by Congress of extensive 
internal taxes, 178 ; details of 
Stevens's system, 178-180 ; in 
spite of legal tender, management 
of war finances a success, 180, 
181 ; expenses denounced by Ste- 
vens as excessive, 186 ; payment 
of interest in coin opposed by 
Stevens, 204-206 ; laws restrict- 
ing operations in gold, 20S. 



Florida, vagrant and labor contract 

l laws in, after war, 252, 253 ; car- 
pet-bag government in, 300. 

Free - soUers, prevent election of 
Winthrop as speaker of House, 
70, 71 ; vote for Stevens, 71, 86 ; 
their policy defended, 71, 72. 

Fremont, John C, attacked by 
Blair, 312 ; defended by Stevens, 
313. 

Fugitive slaves, question of their 
recapture tmder the Constitution, 
20, 21, 74 ; zeal of Stevens in de- 
fending, 26 ; irritation over, be- 
tween South and North, 74 ; pro- 
posed law concerning, denounced 
by Stevens, 75 ; law to enforce 
return of, passed, 86. 

Gboeoia, follows South Carolina in 
secession, 115 ; " carpet-bag " 
government in, 301. 

Gerry, Elbridge, of Maine, in House 
m 1849, 69. 

Giddings, Joshua R., in House in 
1849, 70 ; supports Stevens for 
speaker, 86. 

Gilbert, Amos, describes Stevens's 
law studies, 21. 

Gorsuch, Edward, killed in attempt- 
ing to recapture fugitive slave, 90. 

Grant, General Ulysses S., takes 
Vicksburg, 224 ; on Johnson's 
tour in 1860, 281 ; appointed Sec- 
retary of War by Johnson, 330 ; 
denounced by Stevens, 334. 

Greeley, Horace, on Chase's integ- 
rity, 143. 

Grow, Galusha A., Republican can- 
didate for speaker of House, 97 ; 
chosen speaker in 1861, 138. 

Halleck, General H. W., his order 
sending back fugitive slaves at- 
tacked by Stevens, 216. 

Hanway, Castner, defended by Ste- 
vens in fugitive-slave case, 90, 91. 

Harris, Isham G., in House in 1849, 
70. 

Harrison, William H., said to have 



INDEX 



359 



offered Stevens a seat in his cabi- 
net, 57 ; nominated by Stevens's 
influence, 57. 

Hastings, Warren, his impeachment 
contrasted with that of Johnson, 
346-ai8. 

Hibbard, Harry, in House in 1849, 
69. 

Hood, Alexander, on Stevens's in- 
debtedness, 58. 

House of Commons, better fitted to 
develop statesmanship than Con- 
gress, C8, G9 ; its superiority in 
settling contested election cases, 
106. 

House of Representatives, its char- 
acter and organization in 1849, 
67 ; fails to develop statesman- 
ship as compared with House of 
Commons, 68, 69 ; membership 
of, in 1849, 69; struggle for or- 
ganization of, 70, 71 ; passes com- 
promise of 1850, 85 ; organized 
peaceably in 1850, 86 ; retirement 
of Stevens from, 89 ; return of 
Stevens to, 94-96 ; contest over 
organization of, 96-104; violent 
scenes in, 97, 98, 101 ; its man- 
agement of contested election 
cases, 106, 107 ; fails to pass reso- 
lution of Stevens suggesting that 
Buchanan prepare to defend Sum- 
ter, 119, 120 ; appoints special 
committee on state of country, 

, 120, 121 ; committee of, discusses 
compromise measures, 121-123 ; 
violent scenes in, during Stevens's 
speech against compromise, 127, 
128; passes constitutional amend- 
ment to prevent abolition of slav- 
ery, 129 ; organizes quickly in 
1861, 138 ; led by Stevens, 138 ; 
receives Lincoln's war message 
with enthusiasm, 140 ; passes 
loan and appropriation bills, 144, 
145 ; debates direct tax on land, 
147, 148 ; passes revenue bill, 
147 ; passes Crittenden resolu- 
tion, 148 ; later lays it on table, 
149 ; rejects confiscation bill, 



later passes it, 150 ; debate in, on 
legal-tender issue, 100-1C7 ; passea 
legal - tender act, 167 ; passea 
series of loan acts, 174, 175 
passes national banking act, 174 
unwilling to impose taxes, 176 
later passes elaborate tax laws, 
178-180; debates resolution call- 
ing on secretary of war to in- 
vestigate responsibility for defeat 
at Ball's Bluff, 192-194 ; debates 
and passes bill indemnifying Pre- 
sident for suspending writ of 
habeas corpus, 194, 195 ; passes 
conscription act, 195, 198 ; passes 
confiscation act, 199; passes Pa- 
cific Railroad bills, 203 ; led by 
Stevens to reject sham military 
improvements of rivers, 204 ; 
passes, and fifteen days later re- 
peals, act restricting operations 
in gold, 208 ; complete leadership 
of Stevens in, 208, 209 ; passes 
resolution offering to aid in com- 
pensated emancipation, 216 ; 
passes bill to abolish slavery in 
District, 217 ; passes bUl to pro- 
hibit in Territories, 217 ; passes 
bill to arm negroes, 223 ; fails to 
pass thirteenth amendment, 225 ; 
later yields to popular will, 226 ; 
defeats Vallandigham's resolu- 
tions on object of war, 230 ; 
excludes members from recon- 
structed States, 256-258 ; votes 
to appoint a joint committee on 
reconstruction, 258 ; debates in, 
on reconstruction, 261-270; fails 
to pass Freedmen's Bureau bill 
over veto, 270 ; passes second 
freedmen's bill and other bills 
over veto, 271 ; becomes more 
radical, 286 ; considers bill to re- 
peal statute of limitations con- 
cerning treason, 287 ; considers 
reconstruction bill, 288-291 ; 
forces Senate to yield, 291 ; passes 
bill over veto, 292 ; threatens to 
impeach Johnson, 323 ; passes 
statute obliging next Congress to 



360 



INDEX 



assemble March 4, 1867, 324 ; 
considers bill to enforce confisca- 
tion act, 324, 325 ; rejects plan 
to impeach Johnson, 327, 328 ; 
passes tenure-of-ofBce act, 328 ; 
passes resolution to impeach John- 
son, 332-335 ; appoints a commit- 
tee to impeach, 335 ; last days of 
Stevens in, 349, 350. 

House of Representatives of Penn- 
sylvania, career of Stevens in, 
31-56 ; appoints committee to 
investigate Masonry, 32 ; rejects 
bill to suppress Masonry, 34 ; 
passes bill for free public schools, 
35 ; driven by popular excitement 
for repeal of law, 37 ; Stevens's 
speech in, for free schools, 38-45 ; 
votes against repeal, 40; carried 
by anti-Masons, 46 ; fails to in- 
vestigate Masonry, 46 ; charters 
Bank of United States, 47 ; con- 
test over organization of, between 
Whigs and Democrats, 51-54 ; 
captured by Democrats, 54 ; re- 
fusal of Stevens to attend, 53, 
54 ; expels Stevens, 54 ; later ex- 
pels Democratic leader, 55 ; later 
career of Stevens in, 56. 

Houston, Samuel, proposes exten- 
sion of Missouri Compromise line, 
121. 

Hunter, General David, praised by 
Stevens for arming negroes, 215. 

Illinois, carried by Democrats in 
1862, 220. 

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 
323-348 ; steps leading up to, 
332-337 ; articles of, 337-339 ; 
managers of, 337, 338 ; Johnson's 
counsel for defense, 338, 339 ; 
trial, 339-345; centre of effort 
on tenure-of-offlce question, 340- 
342 ; speech of Stevens upon, 
343, 344; vote upon, 344, 345; 
acquittal of Johnson, 345 ; con- 
trasted with impeachment of War- 
ren Hastings, 346-348. 



Indiana, carried by Democrats in 

1862, 220. 
Iowa, carried by Republicans in 

1862, 221. 

Jackson, Andbew, attacked by Ste- 
vens, 31. 

Johnson, Andrew, in House in 1849, 
70 ; continues Lincoln's plan of 
reconstruction, 241 ; probably per- 
suaded by cabinet, 241, 242 ; be- 
comes President, his character, 
244 ; his egotism and vindictive- 
ness, 245, 24G ; issues amnesty and 
reconstruction proclamation, 246, 
247 ; his temporary popularity, 
249 ; protected at first by Lin- 
cohi's prestige, 258 ; attacked by 
Stevens, 261-263 ; denounces com- 
mittee on reconstruction, 265 ; 
satirically eulogized by Stevens, 
267-269; his inconsistencies shown 
up by Stevens, 269, 270 ; vetoes 
Freedmen's Bureau bill, 270; 
vetoes other bills, which are 
passed nevertheless, 271 ; his 
tour " swinging round the circle," 
280, 281 ; his violent language, 
281 ; sarcastic speech of Stevens 
upon, 282-284 ; becomes a nullity 
in government, 284 ; his message 
of December, 1866, 285 ; tries to 
kill reconstruction act by delay- 
ing veto, 291 ; early threatened 
with impeachment, 323; quoted 
by Stevens as authority for con- 
fiscation, 324, 325 ; failure of first 
attempt to impeach, 326, 327; 
enrages Congressmen by his use 
of patronage, 327 ; defies tenure- 
of-office act, 328 ; asks Stanton 
to resign, 329 ; removes him and 
substitutes Grant, 330; ignored by 
Stanton, 332 ; again removes him, 
332 ; resolution to impeach, intro- 
duced by Stevens, 333 ; bitterly 
denounced, 334 ; impeached before 
Senate, 335, 337 ; his defence by 
Evarts and Curtis, 339-342 ; Ste- 



INDEX 



361 



vens's ar^ment against, 343, 344 ; 
acquitted, 344, 345. 
Johnson, Reverdy, on impeachment, 
345. 

Kansas, attempt of South to gain 
control of, 102; carried by Repub- 
licans in 1862, 221. 

King, Preston, in House in 1S49, 69. 

Know - Nothing party, controls 
House in 1854, 96. 

Lecky, W. E. H., on carpet-bag 
gOTernment, 303. 

Legal-tender notes, Stevens's argu- 
ment for, 160-167. See Financial 
History. 

Lincoln, Abraham, his skill as leader 
of Republicans, 111; nominated 
for president, 112 ; significance 
of his election by a minority vote, 
112, 113; his caution, 136; se- 
lects his cabinet out of all ele- 
ments of party, 136 ; obliged to 
act by fall of Fort Sumter, 137 ; 
begins war for the Union, 138; his 
war message asking for money 
and men, 139, 140 ; attacked by 
Vallandigham, 144 ; declares 
Southern ports blockaded, 185 ; 
criticised for slowness by Stevens, 
186 ; his action called imconsti- 
tutional, 192 ; indemnified by Con- 
gress for suspending habeas cor- 
pus, 194, 195 ; reluctant to ap- 
prove confiscation act, 199 ; asked 
to cancel order prohibiting ne- 
groes to enter Union lines, 216 ; 
asks Congress to offer to aid 
States in compensated emanci- 
pation, 216; his plan sneered at by 
Stevens, 216; finally sees neces- 
sity of emancipation, 217, 218 ; 
issues proclamation, 218, 222 ; 
continues to hope for compensa- 
tion, 222 ; reelected, 226 ; sug- 
gests reconstruction, 231 ; issues 
amnesty proclamation, 232 ; his 
plan opposed by Stevens, 233 ; 
vetoes reconstruction bill, 237 ; 



his plan criticised, 237 ; signs re- 
solution excluding reconstructed 
States from presidential election 
239; prepares to carry his plan 
through, 239-241 ; his ideas fol- 
lowed by Johnson, 241, 242; his 
cabinet brings Johnson to follow 
him, 241 ; would have avoided a 
rupture with Congress had he 
lived, 242, 243, 308; his influence 
at first makes Congress unwilling 
to quarrel with Jolmson, 258 ; 
anecdotes concerning, 311, 315; 
eulogized by Stevens, 326. 

Louisiana, reconstruction in, 233 ; 
senators and representatives from, 
excluded from Congress, 234 ; 
question of its status, 234. 

Lovejoy, Owen, introduces bill pro- 
hibiting slavery in Territories, 
217., 

McClellan, Gen-eral Geoboe B., 
his incompetence described by 
Stevens, 197, 198 ; candidate for 
presidency, 226 ; sarcasm of Ste- 
vens upon, 315. 

McClure, Alexander K., on relations 
of Harrison with Stevens, 57 ; de- 
scribes Stevens's legal ability, 92. 

McCulloch, Hugh, on Johnson's 
reconstruction policy as continu- 
ing Lincoln's, 241. 

McElwee, Thomas B., proposescom- 
mittee of Pennsylvania to inves- 
tigate Stevens's conduct, 54 ; ex- 
pelled from legislature, 55. 

McLean, John T., preferred by Ste- 
vens for president, 112. 

Mann, Horace, in House in 1849, 69 ; 
supports Stevens for speaker, 86. 

Maryland, Stevens's bar examina- 
tion in, 21-23. 

Maynard, Horace, question of valid- 
ity of his election to House, 267 ; 
joke of Stevens upon, as a " half- 
breed," 315, 316. 

Minnesota, carried by Republicans 
in 18G2, 221. 

Mississippi, passes apprentice and 



362 



INDEX 



contract laws for negroes, 250, 
251. 

Missouri Compromise repealed by 
South, 101. 

Moore, Professor, at Dartmouth 
College, 13. 

Morgan, William, murdered by Ma- 
sons, 29. 

Morrill, Justin S., opposes issue of 
legal-tender notes, 160 ; on Com- 
mittee on Reconstruction, 259. 

New England, remains Republican 
in 1862, 221. 

New Mexico, its admission as a 
slave State proposed in 1801 to 
pacify the South, 126, 129. 

New York, carried by Democrats in 
1862, 220. 

North, its subserviency to South 
denounced by Stevens, 83, 84, 98 ; 
stirred to anger by repeal of Mis- 
souri Compromise, 102 ; rebuked 
by Buchanan for having forced 
South to secede, 116 ; defended by 
Stevens, 125 ; its timidity in 1861, 
130 ; not led by abolitionists, 133, 
134 ; swayed by sentiments of 
Union taught by Webster and 
Clay, 134, 135 ; rises at news of 
Fort Sumter, 137, 138 ; ceases to 
volimteer, 195 ; alters attitude 
toward slavery during war, 212; 
begins to consider its abolition 
necessary to end war, 212 ; disaf- 
fection in, over emancipation and 
draft, 223, 224 ; disgusted at anti- 
negro laws of South, 254, 255. 

North Carolina, reconstruction of, 
under Johnson, 246, 247 ; " car- 
pet-bag " government in, 301. 

Ohio, carried by Democrats in 1862, 
220. 

Patton, Governor, vetoes Alabama 
anti-negro laws, 252. 

Pennsylvania, reasons for Stevens's 
removal to, 20 ; organization of 
anti-Masons in, 29, 30 ; Stevens's 



political career in, 31-65 ; public 
school system of, 34 ; objection 
of its inhabitants to taxation for 
schools, 35,36; agitation in, against 
free schools, 36 ; carried by anti- 
Masons, 46 ; charters Bank of 
United States, 47; constitutional 
convention, 47, 48 ; limits suffrage 
to whites, 48 ; anti-abolition con- 
vention in, 49; " Buckshot war " 
in, over organization of House, 
51-54 ; reputation of Stevens in, 
56, 91; Democrats gain in, dur- 
ing 1862, 220; renominates Ste- 
vens after his death, 352, 353. 

Pennsylvania College, gets state aid 
through Stevens, 33. 

Phelps, Abner, an anti-Mason in 
1832, 30. 

Phillips, Wendell, denounced by 
Johnson, 265, 281. 

Pierce, Franklin, attacked by Ste- 
vens, 87 ; promises to maintain 
compromise, 101. 

Pierpont, Francis H., governor of 
reconstructed Virginia, 269. 

Protection, Stevens's arguments 
for, 105. 

Raymond, Henry J., defends John- 
son's reconstruction policy, 264 ; 
sneered at by Stevens, 266. 

Reed, John M., in Castner Hanway 
suit, 91. 

Reconstruction, begun in Louisiana, 
231 ; plan of, outlined by Lincoln, 
231-233 ; President's plan of, dis- 
pleases Congress, 233 ; congress- 
ional plan of, formed and passed, 
234-237 ; vetoed by Lincoln, 237 ; 
superiority of congressional plan 
over Lincoln's, 238 ; controversy 
over, postponed until after Lin- 
coln's death, 238, 239 ; its prob- 
able course, had Lincoln lived, 
239-243; identity of Lincoln's 
and Johnson's plans for, 240-242 ; 
Johnson's plan of, promulgated, 
246-248 ; working of Johnson's 
plan, 249-255 ; joint committee 



INDEX 



on, appointed by Congress, 258, 
269 ; Stevens's conquered-pro- 
vince theory of, 2C1, 2G2, 2CG, 207, 
269; report of committee on, 273- 
275 ; Stevens's theory of, adopted 
by Congress, 273-275, 294 ; negro 
suffrage advocated as part of, by 
Stevens, 27G, 277, 286 ; and by the 
North, 278, 279 ; message of John- 
son upon, in 186G, 285 ; joint com- 
mittee on, renewed, 285 ; bill for, 
reported to House, 288 ; debate 
upon, 290, 291 ; vetoed by John- 
son, 291 ; passed over veto, 292 ; 
alterations in bill for, as passed, 
292-294 ; efficacy of, damaged by 
representation clause, 294, 295; 
discussion of process of, 29G- 
308 ; necessity of thoroughness 
in, 297, 298 ; effectiveness of mili- 
tary government under, 298, 299 ; 
carpet-bag government under, 
299-305 ; violent overturn of negro 
rule after, 304 ; justified by ne- 
cessity, 305-308 ; by impossibility 
of leaving negroes to mercy of 
whites, 306, 307 ; rendered harsh 
by fact of Johnson's presidency, 
308 ; further acts to carry out, 
passed over veto, 326. 
Republican party, attempt of Ste- 
vens and others to form, in 1855, 
93; organized in 185G, 94; its 
struggle for control of House in 
1859, 96-101 ; succeeds after eight 
weeks, 104 ; its national conven- 
tion of 1860, 112 ; elects Lincoln 
by a minority vote, 112, 113; at- 
tempt of Lincoln to unite, by 
cabinet appointments, 136, 137 ; 
supports Crittenden resolution, 
148 ; saved by Border States in 
1862, 220, 221 ; committed to 
emancipation, 223 ; reasons for 
its nomination of Johnson, 244 ; 
leadership of, by Stevens, in re- 
construction period, 259 ; success- 
ful in elections of 18GG, 284 ; irri- 
tated at Johnson's control of 
offices, 327, 328. 



Ritner, Joseph, anti-Masonic can- 
didate for governor of Pennsylva- 
nia, 30 ; renominated and elected, 
46; appoints Stevens on Canal 
Commission, 50 ; defeated for 
reelection, 51 ; issues proclama- 
tion calling Democrats on "in- 
furiated mob," 52. 

Saocri, , anecdote of his de- 
fense by Conkling and Stevens, 
313. 

Schenck, Robert C, in House in 
1849, 70. 

Schools, pubUc, in Pennsylvania, 
controversy over, 34-45 ; Ste- 
vens's great speech in behalf of, 
38-45. 

Schwarz, John, eulogy of Stevens 
upon, 95. 

Scott, General Winfield, praised by 
Stevens, 87, 88 ; defeated for 
presidency, 88. 

Secession, Stevens's argument upon, 
125, 126. 

Senate, of United States, empow- 
ered by tenure-of-otflce act to 
prevent removals from office, 
329 ; refuses to ratify removal of 
Stanton by Johnson, 331 ; appear- 
ance of Stevens before, to im- 
peach Johnson, 335-337 ; more 
than two thirds Republican, 344; 
fails to convict Johnson, 345. 

Seward, William H., an anti- 
Mason in 1830, 30 ; unsuited to 
be a Republican candidate, 112 ; 
his influence upon Johnson, 246 ; 
accompanies Johnson on tour, 
281 ; held responsible by Stevens 
for Johnson's change of attitude 
toward rebels, 325. 

Shellabarger, Samuel, replies to 
Raymond's speech defending 
Johnson, 264. 

Sherman, John, Republican candi- 
date for speaker in 1859, 97 ; his 
high rank as financier, 144. 

Shurtleff, Professor, at Dartmouth 
CoUege, 13. 



364 



INDEX 



Sickles, Daniel E., vetoes South 
Carolina black code after the 
war, 251, 252. 

Slavery, causes of struggle over, in 
Territories, 72 ; speeches of Ste- 
vens against, 76-78, 80-85, 127, 
128 ; passage of constitutional 
amendment to preserve, 129 ; 
with outbreak of war, ceases to 
be main pdlitical issue, 130, 131 ; 
steps by which it became neces- 
sary to South, 132 ; in course of 
war, becomes again a political 
issue, 212 ; its abolition urged by 
Stevens, 212 ; abolished in Dis- 
trict of Columbia and in Terri- 
tories, 217 ; abolished by thir- 
teenth amendment, 225, 22C ; 
could have been abolished only 
by a convulsion, 226-228. 

Slaves, of secessionists, proposal of 
Stevens to emancipate, 213-215 ; 
arming of, advocated by Stevens, 

215, 222, 223 ; compensated eman- 
cipation of, urged by President, 

216, 222 ; emancipated by Lin- 
coln's proclamation, 217, 218, 222. 

Smith, Dr. George, describes effect 
of Stevens's speech on free 
schools in Pennsylvania legislar 
ture, 39. 

South, wishes to profit from Mexi- 
can war, 72 ; exasperated by 
Castner Hanway case, 90 ; mem- 
bers of Congress from, exasper- 
ated by Stevens, 98, 99 ; its bad 
faith in carrying repeal of Mis- 
souri Compromise, 102 ; responsi- 
ble for reentrance of slavery into 
national politics, 110 ; sees that 
election of 1860 means its own 
ultimate decline, 113, 114 ; urged 
by Buchanan not to secede, 117 ; 
encouraged by Buchanan's mes- 
sage, 118 ; refuses to consider 
compromise offers, 124, 129 ; 
forms Southern Confederacy, 129, 
130 ; not responsible for exist- 
ence of slavery, 131 ; at first dis- 
posed to abandon it, 131 ; later 



bound to it economically, 132 ; 
necessity of blockading, during 
war, 182, 183 ; proposal of Ste- 
vens to repeal laws creating ports 
of entry in, 183-185 ; constitu- 
tional status of, according to 
Stevens, 191, 192 ; confiscates 
property of alien enemies, 198, 
199 ; resolution of Stevens to 
confiscate slaves of, 213 ; rapid 
reconstruction of, under Johnson, 
249; in hands of rebels, 249; 
passes laws to reduce negroes to 
servitude, 250-253 ; turns North 
against it by anti-negro laws, 
254, 255; proposal of Stevens to 
rule, through negro vote, 262, 
263 ; rejects fourteenth amend- 
ment, 272, 285, 286; turbulent 
condition of, 289 ; carpet-bag 
government in, 299-305 ; turns to 
violence to escape negro rule, 
304, 305 ; would have oppressed 
negroes but for reconstruction, 
307 ; proposal of Stevens to pun- 
ish leading rebels by confiscation, 
323-326. 

South Carolina, leads in secession, 
115; sends "ambassadors" to 
ask surrender of Fort Sumter, 
118 ; when reconstructed, passes 
laws oppressing negroes, 251, 252 ; 
carpet-bag government in, 302- 
304. 

Speed, James, resigns from John- 
son's cabinet, 278. 

Stanton, Edwin M., declines to 
order inquiry upon responsibility 
for Ball's Bluff, 193 ; presents 
Lincoln's reconstruction plan to 
Johnson, 241 ; remains in John- 
son's cabinet, 277 ; requested by 
Johnson to resign, 329 ; remains 
in oflBce to antagonize Johnson, 
330 ; refuses to resign and is re- 
moved, 330 ; his removal not al- 
lowed by the Senate, 331 ; sends 
message to House, 331 ; ignores 
Johnson, and is again removed, 
331, 332. 



INDEX 



Stephens, Alexander H., in House 
in 1849, 70. 

Stevens, Joshua, father of Thad- 
deus Stevens, 1 ; his career, 2, 3. 

Stevens, Sally, mother of Thaddeus 
Stevens, 1 ; determines to send 
Thaddeus to college, 7, 10 ; her 
courage during pestilence, 8 ; in- 
debtedness of Thaddeus to her, 8. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, birth and ances- 
try, 1, 2 ; learns shoemaking, 2 ; 
boyhood, 6, 7 ; his ambition kin- 
dled by visit to Boston, 7 ; aids his 
mother in visiting the sick, 8 ; his 
gratitude to his mother, 8, 9 ; 
education and school life, 11, 12; 
studies at Dartmouth, 12-16; 
gains literary accuracy, 16 ; at 
University of Vermont, 16, 17; 
writes a tragedy, 17 ; anecdote of 
his killing a cow, 17, 18 ; studies 
law, 19 ; moves to Pennsylvania 
and teaches school, 19, 20 ; gains 
a hatred of slavery, 20, 21 ; ad- 
mitted to Maryland bar, 21-23; 
begins practice at Gettysburg, 
24 ; first success in murder case, 
25, 26 ; gains an important prac- 
tice, 26 ; aids fugitive slaves, 26 ; 
his early political views, 28. 
In Pennsylvania Legislature. 
Joins anti-Masons, 29 ; at na- 
tional convention, 30 ; slow to 
admit decline of party, 30, 31 ; 
elected to Pennsylvania House of 
Representatives, 31 ; attacks Jack- 
son, 31 ; attacks Masonry, 31-33 ; 
secures aid for Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, 33 ; reelected to legislature, 
33 ; determines to oppose repeal 
of free-school bill, 37, 38 ; his 
great speech against repeal, 38- 
45 ; turns opinion of legislature, 
40 ; thanked by Governor Wolf, 
41 ; becomes a leader in the State, 
45 ; again reelected, attacks Ma- 
sonry, 46 ; introduces bill to char- 
ter United States Bank, 47. 
In Constitutional Convention. 
Elected to constitutional conven- 



tion, 47; leads radicals, 47; op- 
poses Democratic majority, 47, 

48 ; his bitterness in debate, 48 ; 
opposes discrimination on account 
of color, 48 ; refuses to sign Con- 
stitutiou, 48 ; upsets a pro-sla- 
very convention at Harrisburg, 

49 ; his personalities, 49, 50. 

In Legislature. His speech in 
favor of endowing colleges, 50; 
appointed on Canal Commission, 
50 ; said to have used public 
money to aid Whigs, 51 ; leads 
Whigs in separate organization of 
legislature, 52 ; obliged to escape 
through a window, 52; calls the 
Democrats rebels, 53; refuses to 
submit to Democratic victory, 53 ; 
at constituents' request, attends 
legislature, 54 ; refuses to appear 
before committee to investigate 
his conduct, 54 ; expelled from 
House, 54 ; announces himself a 
candidate for reelection, 55 ; as- 
sails legality of legislature, 55 ; 
reelected, 55, 56 ; speech in favor 
of right of petition, 56 ; favors 
banks, 56 ; summary of his career 
thus far, 56 ; greatest debater in 
the State, 56 ; supports Harrison 
for president, 56 ; mentioned for 
a cabinet position, 57 ; involved 
in financial disaster, 58 ; retires 
from politics to retrieve himself, 
58 ; practices law successfully at 
Lancaster, 58, 59 ; gains leader- 
ship of bar, 59 ; his legal meth- 
ods, 59, 60 ; continues to defend 
fugitive slaves, 60 ; opposed by 
Whig machine in Lancaster, 60, 
61; tries to divide Whigs in 1843 
on Masonic issue, 61 ; ignored by 
party, retires from politics, 61, 
62 ; his aid begged by Clay in 
1844, 62; outdoes Webster at a 
campaign meeting, 62, C3 ; gains 
increasing legal fame, 64 ; nomi- 
nated for Congress in spite of the 
"machine," 64, 65; elected, 65. 

In House of Representatives. 



36G 



INDEX 



Advantage of his previous train- 
ing, 66, 67 ; leads radical Whigs, 
70 ; candidate of Free - soilers 
for speaker, 71 ; attacks proposed 
Fugitive Slave Law, 75 ; attacks 
slavery, but admits binding force 
of constitutional guards, 76-78 ; 
on economic weakness of sla- 
very, 77, 78 ; urges prevention of 
slavery extension, 78 j on Judi- 
ciary Committee, 79 ; speech on 
California, 79 ; again attacks sla- 
very, 79-84 ; on fugitive slaves, 
82-85; condemns Webster and 
Clay, 84 ; votes against conces- 
sions to South, 85 ; in next Con- 
gress receives votes of radicals 
for speaker, 86 ; speech upon the 
tariff, 86, 87 ; campaign speech 
upon Pierce's candidacy, 87 ; 
praises Scott, 88 ; his last speech, 
89 ; retires to private life, 89 ; re- 
sumes practice of law, 89 j Han- 
way treason case, 90, 91 ; increases 
his practice, 91 ; his ability and 
methods described, 92, 93 ; dis- 
approves of compromises of Whig 
party, 93 ; attends meeting to 
form Republican party, 93 ; dele- 
gate to Republican convention, 
94 ; reelected to Congress, 94 ; his 
career reviewed to this point, 94, 
95 ; feels burden of age, 95, 96 ; 
taunts Southern members who 
threaten secession, 98 ; his humor- 
ous remarks, 99, 100 ; enjoys the 
radical feeling of Northern mem- 
bers, 102, 103 ; attacked by South- 
ern members, 103 ; his replies, 
103, 104 ; on Committee of Ways 
and Means, 104 ; tries to prove 
English policy protective, 105 ; 
condemns partisan decisions of 
contested election cases, 106 ; his 
later partisanship, 107 ; attacks 
grant to Chiriqui Improvement 
Company, 108 ; attacks Granada 
scheme, 109 ; in Republican con- 
vention, favors McLean for presi- 
dent, 112 ; votes for Lincoln, 112 ; 



presents resolution calling upon 
President to report on defense of 
Southern forts, 119 ; votes against 
compromise propositions, 123 ; his 
speech against yielding to South, 
124-127 ; condemns Buchanan, 
125 ; on secession, 126, 127 ; effect 
of his speech, 127, 128 ; keen to 
see real situation, 128 ; candidate 
for a position in Lincoln's cabinet, 
136; assumes leadership of House, 
138 ; at head of Committee on 
Ways and Means, 139 ; reports 
first bill for a loan, 144 ; intro- 
duces appropriations for army 
and navy, 145 ; introduces reve- 
nue bills, 140 ; defends the land 
tax, 147 ; withholds vote on Crit- 
tenden resolution, 148 ; later, 
moves to lay it on table, 148 ; 
supports confiscation bill to free 
slaves, 149 ; on real object of the 
war, 149 ; predicts emancipation, 
150 ; reports bill for issue of legal 
tender, 100 ; his speech in its be- 
half, 160-167 ; argues its neces- 
ity, 161-163 ; on its constitution- 
ality, 163, 164 ; and expediency, 
164 ; later admits depreciation 
and inflation, 167 ; opposes pay- 
ments on bonds in coin, 168 ; his 
course necessary, 172 ; introduces 
other financial measures, 174, 178 ; 
proposes to repeal bill creating 
Southern ports of entry, 183 ; 
condemns blockade, 184 ; on Eng- 
land's policy, 184, 185 ; objections 
to his measure, 186 ; criticises 
Lincoln's slowness, 186 ; condemns 
extravagance of administration, 
186, 187 ; considers Constitution 
as set aside in the South, 188, 191; 
ridicules theory of consent of 
Virginia to admission of West 
Virginia, 190, 191 ; condemns Lin- 
coln's attitude toward seceded 
States, 192 ; condemns Lincoln's 
claim to uncontrolled command 
over army, 193 ; introduces bill 
to indemnify President for suspen- 



INDEX 



367 



sion of habeas corpus, 194, 195 ; 
accuses Democrats of rendering 
draft necessary, 196; his retort 
to Vallandigham, 197 ; conuuents 
on McClellan's ability, 198 ; de- 
nies that seceding States are in 
Union, 200 ; on belligerent status 
of rebels, 201, 202; too radical 
for his party, 202, 203 ; urges se- 
vere punishment of South, 203; 
favors construction of Pacific rail- 
roads, 203 ; opposes useless im- 
provement of Illinois River, 204 ; 
urges payment of principal of 
debt in coin, 204-206 ; becomes 
advocate of paper money, 207 ; 
his unquestioned leadership in 
House, 208, 209; on Crittenden 
resolutions, 211 ; favors arming 
slaves, 212; urges action against 
slavery, 213; on advantages of 
emancipation, 214, 215 ; despises 
Lincoln's plan for compensated 
emancipation, 216, 217 ; moves 
abolition in District of Columbia 
217; supports emancipation in Ter- 
ritories, 217 ; urges enlistment of 
negroes, 222, 223 ; proposes con- 
stitutional amendment abolishing 
slavery, 225 ; considers rights of 
seceding States destroyed, 229, 
230 ; votes against admission of 
Louisiana delegates, 231 ; opposes 
Lincoln's plan of reconstruction, 
233 ; opposes congressional plan 
of reconstruction, 235-237 ; votes 
reluctantly to nominate Johnson 
for vice-president, 244 ; prepares 
to oppose Johnson's plan of re- 
construction, 257, 268 ; moves 
for a committee of inquiry, 258 ; 
shows skill by delaying attack, 
259 ; his work on Committee on 
Appropriations, 260 ; suggests 
fourteenth amendment, 260 ; his 
constitutional theory of recon- 
struction, 2G1, 262 ; proposes to 
delay admission of Southern Con- 
gressmen until Constitution is 
amended, 262 ; urges negro suf- 



frage to aid Republicans, 263 ; 
condemns results of presidential 
reconstruction, 263 ; proposes to 
reduce representation of South 
if negroes cannot vote, 264 ; at- 
tacked by Johnson, 265 ; his scorn- 
ful answer to Raymond, 266 ; de- 
nies secession to be more than d« 
facto, 266, 267 ; makes a mock 
defense of Johnson, 267-269; 
ridicules fictions of Johnson's 
reconstruction plan, 269, 270 ; 
reports fourteenth amendment, 

271 ; proposes to admit any State 
ratifying fourteenth amendment, 

272 ; presents report of Committee 
on Reconstruction, 273-275 ; ad- 
vocates giving negroes suffrage, 
275-277 ; suffers from ill-health, 
280 ; denounced by Johnson, 281 ; 
his sarcastic remarks on Johnson's 
tour, 282-284; reports recon- 
struction bill, 285 ; his opinions 
inflexible, 280; urges courage, 
287; opposes bill to punish trai- 
tors, 287 ; urges immediate estab- 
lishment of military governments 
in South, 288; opposes Blaine's 
amendment offering amnesty, 290; 
forces bill through House, 292; 
not responsible for representation 
clause in fourteenth amendment, 
294; proposes apportionment ac- 
cording to legal voters, 295 ; does 
right in discarding legal techni- 
calities, 296, 297; not a parchment 
worshiper, 298; his wit and hu- 
mor, 309-311; anecdotes concern- 
ing, 311-317; his joke upon Cam- 
eron, 311, 312; defends Fremont 
at Blair's expense, 312, 313; punc- 
tures Conkling's grandiloquence, 
313, 314; sarcasms upon Brooks 
of New York, 314, 315 ; upon 
Maynard, 316; upon Davis, 316, 
317; personal appearance, 317, 
318; fondness for riding, 318: for 
study, 319; his manner in speak- 
ing, 319, 320 ; unsuccessful in 
private business, 320 ; his iron- 



368 



INDEX 



works burned by Confederates, 
321 ; refuses help offered by 
friends, 321 ; reasons for his par- 
liamentary success, 321 ; com- 
pared to Clay, 322 ; introduces 
bill to confiscate public lands in 
Confederate States, 324, 325 ; his 
proposition unwise, 325 ; remark 
upon Lincoln, 326 ; considers im- 
peachment impracticable, 326, 
327 ; votes for it, 328 ; moves im- 
peachment after Johnson's de- 
fiance of tenure-of-ofiBce act, 
333 ; attacks Johnson bitterly in 
speech, 334 ; indifferent as to 
Grant, 334 ; chairman of commit- 
tee to impeach, 335 ; delivers mes- 
sage to Senate, 335-337 ; on com- 
mittee to prepare articles of im- 
peachment, 337 ; prevented by 
illness from managing case, 337 ; 
responsible for main strength of 
impeachment, 343 ; unable to de- 
liver all of his speech, 343, 344 , 
expects Johnson's condemnation, 
344 ; disappointed at defeat of 
impeachment, 349 ; continues to 
participate in business of House, 
349 ; reviews case, 349 ; praises 
czar of Russia, 350 ; remains in 
Washington during recess to re- 
gain strength, 350 ; remains cheer- 
ful to the end, 351 ; on purchase 
of Alaska, 351 ; last moments 
and death, 352 ; renominated by 
Republicans of his district, 353 ; 
final estimate of his character, 
353. 
Personal Traits. Ambition, 7, 
19, 37, 61, 94, 136 ; business abil- 
ity, 58, 320; cheerfulness, 350; 
courage, 24, 38, 89, 127, 147 ; edu- 
cation, 9, 16, 22 ; generosity, 18, 
26, 89; legal ability, 25, 27, 58- 
60, 64, 91-94 ; literary tastes, 
319; leadership, 138, 145, 208, 259, 
286; oratory, 16,39-44, 63, 79,85, 
160, 319, 336; parliamentary abil- 
ity, 67, 94, 320-322; partisanship, 
47, 48, 51-55, 56, 87, 88, 106, 107, 



196 ; personal appearance, 38, 39, 
317, 31S; radicalism, 102, 128, 286 ; 
sarcasm, 41, 48, 85, 98, 108, 109, 
137, 145, 198, 258, 266, 309-317, 

325, 334 ; vindictiveness, 149, 287, 
288, 325, 326 ; wit, 49, 50, 79, 100, 
268, 269, 282-284, 309-317. 

Political Opinions. Alexander 
II., 350; anti-Masonry, 29,31-33, 
46, 61 ; blockade, 183-185 ; com- 
promise of 1850, 85; compromises 
of 1860, 121-124, 126 ; confiscation 
act, 149, 200, 324; Constitution, 
76, 80, 104, 127, 163, 164, 187, 191- 
194, 200-203, 230, 236, 260, 261, 
267, 274, 297, 298; Copperheads, 
196, 197; Crittenden resolution, 
148, 211, 229; direct tax, 147; ed- 
ucation, public, 33, 37, 39-44, 50; 
emancipation, 212-217 ; fourteenth 
amendment, 271, 272, 295; fu- 
gitive slaves, 26, 60, 75, 83-85, 89- 
91 ; habeas corpus, suspension of, 
195;, impeachment of Johnson, 

326, 332, 336, 337, 343, 344, 349; 
legal tender, 160-168; negro sol- 
diers, 223 ; negro suffrage, 260, 
263, 2C4, 276, 277, 295; Pacific 
railroads, 203 ; reconstruction, 
233, 235, 258, 262, 263, 269, 270, 
273-275, 286, 287, 290; secession, 
125, 126; slavery, 21, 26, 60, 76- 
78, 80-82, 127, 149 ; specie pay- 
ment, suspension of, 204-208; tar- 
iff, 86,87, 105, 106; war of 1861, 
148, 186 ; West Virginia, 190, 191, 
269. 

Sumner, Charles, his indictment of 
slavery surpassed by Stevens, 128 ; 
dislikes issue of legal-tender notes, 
but supports bill authorizing it, 
170 ; denounced by Johnson, 265 ; 
on Stevens's terseness, 319 ; on 
Johnson's impeachment, 345. 

Tariff, speeches of Stevens upon, 
86, 87, 105 ; effect of act of 1857, 
104 ; passage of act increasing du- 
ties, 105, 106. 

Taylor, Miles, proposes constitu- 



INDEX 



369 



tional amendment in 1861 to pre- 
vent negro Buffrage, 121. 

Ticknor, George, describes Presi- 
dent Wheelock of Dartmouth, lo, 
14 ; his difficulty in finding Ger- 
man books, 15. 

Toombs, Robert, in House in 1849, 
70 ; his violence, 97. 

Trumbull, Lyman, votes against 
impeachment of Johnson, 345. 

Untveesity op Vermont, studies of 
Stevens at, 1&-18. 

" Vaghant " acts against negroes, 
249-255. 

Vallandigham, Clement L., attacks 
Lincoln, 144, 196 ; denounces the 
draft, 196 ; accused of treason by 
Stevens, 196, 197 ; denounces war 
as for abolition, 218 ; ofifers reso- 
lutions reaflBrming Crittenden's 
theory of the war, 230. 

Vermont, scenery and climate of, 3, 
4 ; democracy of social life in, 
5-7 ; independent spirit of, 6 ; 
early education in, 9 ; carried by 
anti-Masons, 30. 

Virginia, its decay imder slavery 
described by Stevens, 77, 78 ; 
said by legal fiction to have con- 
sented to formation of West Vir- 
ginia, 189, 269, 270. 

Wade, Benjajun F., begs Johnson 
to be lenient to rebels, 246. 

Walker, Amasa, anti-Mason in 1832, 
30. 

War of Rebellion, financial bur- 
dens of, 139-148; its purpose 
stated by Lincoln, 139, 140; de- 
clared to be for Union and not 
abolition, 148 ; begins with South- 
em victories, 152 ; general finances 
of, 153-173 ; blockade in, 183-186 ; 
management of, condemned by 
Stevens, 187. 

Washbume, E. B., on Committee on 
Reconstruction, 259; humor of 
Stevens at expense of, 315. 



Watterson, Henry, classes Stevens 
and Clay with Pitt and Mirabeau, 
322. 
Webster, Daniel, imitates Dr. Whee- 
lock, 14 ; surpassed by Stevens on 
the stump, 63 ; his course upon 
compromise denounced by Ste- 
vens, 84 ; influence of his advocacy 
of Union, 135. 
West Virginia, inhabitants of, set up 
a state government, 189 ; applies 
for admission, 189 ; constitutional 
difficulties, 189 ; legal fiction of 
Virginia's consent ridiculed by 
Stevens, 189-191, 269,270. 

Wheelock, John, president of Dart- 
mouth College, 13 ; described by 
George Ticknor, 14. 

Whig party, its origin, 31 ; carries 
Pennsylvania, 46 ; aided by Ste- 
vens as canal commissioner, 51 ; 
defeated in election, 51 ; contests 
legislature with Democrats, 51- 
53 ; defeated in " Buckshot war," 
53 ; supported by Stevens in cam- 
paign of 1840, 57 ; leaders of, in 
Pennsylvania, antagonize Stevens, 
61 ; persuades Stevens to work in 
campaign of 1844, 62 ; members 
of, join Democrats to pass Com- 
promise of 1850, 85 ; defeated in 
1852, 88 ; despaired of by Stevens, 
93 ; disappears in 1859, 96. 

Wilmot, David, in House in 1849,69. 

Wilson,JamesF., introduces amend- 
ment abolishing slavery, 225 ; sup- 
ports impeachment resolution, 
333; a manager for the House, 
338. 

Winthrop, Robert C, in House in 
1849, 69 ; Whig candidate for 
speaker, 70, 71 ; defeated by 
Free-soilers, 71. 

Wirt, William, nominated for pre- 
sident by anti-Masons, 30. 

Wolf, Governor, thanks Stevens for 
his speech on free schools, 41 ; re- 
marks of Stevens upon, 42 ; re- 
fuses to testify before committee 
of legislature on Masonry, 46. 



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